How to find the better games on Xbox Live Marketplace?

With so many games on Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM), how can I identify the better games or more popular games from the market?


There are two mechanisms the Xbox provides for you to do this.

  1. It lists the most downloaded games
  2. It lists the highest rated games

Now you have to take both of these metrics with a grain of salt. People will rate games high they have only played once, or download games they hear about a lot. So keep that in mind.

As for the actual steps to do this.

  1. Open your 360 dashboard
  2. Scroll up to game marketplace
  3. Once inside scroll right to see highest rated and most downloaded

If you're looking for good games I might suggest:

  • Castle Crashers
  • Shadow Complex
  • Trials HD
  • Puzzle Quest 2

Every game on Xbox Live Arcade has a trial mode. I suggest you take advantage of this excellent feature.

Don't bother looking through what games are most popular or most highly rated. The best possible advice I can give you is to download as many games as you can in the genres you're interested in, and play through their trials.

If you can't trust your own opinion of the game after having played the trial version, there is little help to be found elsewhere.