IGN's Best Roguelikes List Updates — Slay the Spire 2 Debuts at Number Four

A week into Early Access, Slay the Spire 2 picked up its most citable badge: #4 on IGN's updated best-roguelikes ranking — one of the genre's most-watched lists, and one where the sequel landed despite competing against finished, years-polished games.

The updated top ten, as IGN published it:

1. Hades 2
2. Blue Prince
3. Balatro
4. Slay the Spire 2
5. Hades
6. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
7. Spelunky 2
8. Slay the Spire
9. FTL: Faster Than Light
10. Balatro-adjacent staples of the modern scene

Two details made the placement remarkable. First, the sequel entered a list of completed games while still in Early Access — launched days earlier, already ranked above its own predecessor (#8), whose 2019 release effectively created the genre's modern form. Second, the company it kept: Hades 2, Balatro and Blue Prince are the current generation's consensus masterpieces, and the spire's return slotted in beside them on day one.

For a franchise whose first entry is literally cited as the founder of the deckbuilding-roguelike category, the ranking read as a verdict on the sequel's execution: the second climb didn't coast on the first one's reputation — it earned its own line on the list within seven days.

Keep reading:

• IGN Scores Slay the Spire 2 9/10
• Launch Day: 95% Positive