The Poll That Ignited the Debate: A Photo Finish Between The Witcher 3 and Persona 5 Royal

The poll, run over two weeks by a popular RPG-focused forum and its companion Discord server, asked players to choose the single best RPG released between 2015 and 2024. More than 48,000 votes were cast, and the final tally could hardly have been tighter. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took first place with 22.4% of the vote, while Persona 5 Royal finished second at 21.1%. Elden Ring followed at 18.7%, and Baldur’s Gate 3 came fourth with 17.3%. Divinity: Original Sin 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium, Monster Hunter: World, and Final Fantasy VII Remake split most of the remaining votes.

The 1.3-point margin immediately sparked accusations of vote brigading, platform bias, and recency bias. Some fans pointed out that Persona 5 Royal was available on more platforms later, while others argued The Witcher 3 benefited from a massive next-gen update and years of deep discounts. The poll’s comment section became a battlefield of genres: action RPG versus turn-based JRPG, open-world versus linear, western versus Japanese, and narrative-driven versus mechanics-driven. Moderators reportedly had to lock several threads after arguments about whether Blood and Wine should count as part of the base game and whether Royal’s third semester was essential or bloated.

The results were not just a list; they became a Rorschach test for what players value. For many, the debate itself was more interesting than the winner, because it exposed how impossible it is to compare a sprawling Slavic fantasy epic with a stylish Tokyo teenage rebellion. The poll did not settle anything, but it gave fans a fresh excuse to replay old favorites, revisit forgotten nominees, and argue about the ones they missed. In the end, the most telling result was not the winner but the spread: four very different games all commanded enough passion to top the list on another day.

Why The Witcher 3 Still Defines the Open-World RPG

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt remains the default answer for many when the phrase "best RPG" appears. Released in 2015, it arrived with a vast open world that felt handcrafted rather than generated, and its side quests set a standard that few games have matched since. The Bloody Baron questline, the tragic fate of the Crones, and the morally grey choices of Skellige are still cited in debates as proof that CD Projekt Red understood how to make player decisions feel consequential without reducing them to binary good and evil. Its two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are often described as better than most full games, with the latter offering a lush, sun-drenched region and a vampire story that deepened Geralt’s character.

Combat may be the weakest link, with critics calling it floaty or repetitive, but fans counter that the game’s strengths lie in narrative, atmosphere, and world-building. The next-gen update in 2022 brought a new generation of players, while mods continue to improve visuals, mechanics, and quality-of-life features. For its defenders, The Witcher 3 won the poll because it is the most complete package: a huge world, memorable characters, excellent writing, and a sense of adventure that rewards exploration. It also benefited from a broad release across PC and consoles, multiple Game of the Year awards, and a long tail of discounts that kept it in the conversation. Some argue that its influence is so deep that later games, from Assassin’s Creed to Ghost of Tsushima, borrowed its quest design philosophy. Others say it is simply the game that made them fall in love with RPGs. It is not just a game; it is the RPG that many players measure all others against, and that is why it remains so hard to dethrone.

Persona 5 Royal and the Case for Style, Systems, and Turn-Based Combat

Persona 5 Royal is the poll’s most passionate runner-up, and for a large slice of fandom, it is not a runner-up at all. The game blends a turn-based dungeon crawler with a social simulation set in modern Tokyo, asking players to balance school life, part-time jobs, friendships, and romantic relationships with exploring the cognitive world of the Metaverse. Royal adds new story content, a new playable character in Kasumi Yoshizawa, and a third semester that many fans consider the emotional peak of the entire game. Its style is unmistakable: bold red menus, acid-jazz music, and UI transitions so smooth they became a meme.

Defenders argue that no other RPG in the decade has such a coherent identity, where combat, music, art direction, and narrative all reinforce one another. They also point out that turn-based combat is not outdated; it is a deliberate design choice that allows for tactical depth and spectacular animations. The social links, or Confidants, give every supporting character an arc, and Royal improves several of them while adding new ones. Critics complain about pacing, especially the early hours and the lengthy dungeons, but fans reply that the slow burn is part of the payoff. Persona 5 Royal’s strong poll performance proves that JRPGs still have a massive, dedicated audience, and that "best" does not have to mean "biggest open world." For many voters, it is the most stylish, emotionally resonant, and replayable RPG of the decade, a game that turns menu design into an art form and makes routine high school life feel epic. Its victory in the hearts of fans may be quieter than The Witcher 3’s, but it is no less fierce.

Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and the Impossible Task of Defining "Best"

Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 represent two different futures for the genre, and their strong showings in the poll show how quickly the conversation can shift. Elden Ring, released in 2022, took the Soulslike formula and dropped it into a sprawling open world filled with hidden catacombs, impossible bosses, and environmental storytelling that rewards curiosity. Its defenders call it a landmark of exploration, where every horizon hides a secret and every death teaches something. Baldur’s Gate 3, released in 2023, brought dense CRPG mechanics to a mainstream audience with turn-based combat, deep companion romances, and an extraordinary level of player freedom. Fans praise its reactivity, voice acting, and willingness to let players fail forward.

Both games are recent, which led some voters to accuse the poll of recency bias, while others argued that quality is quality regardless of release date. The deeper problem is that "best RPG of the decade" is an impossible question because the genre contains multitudes: action RPGs, tactical RPGs, JRPGs, CRPGs, immersive sims, and hybrids. A poll can only capture a moment in time, not a permanent truth. The Witcher 3 won because it appealed across categories; Persona 5 Royal won because it excelled within one; Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 won because they pushed their respective subgenres forward. If the poll were run next year, the order could change. If it were run on a different platform, the winner might change. That instability is not a flaw in the poll; it is a feature of a genre that refuses to be reduced to a single definition. The debate will continue, and that is exactly what keeps the RPG community alive.