Ranking EVERY TrackMania Game From WORST TO BEST (Top 7 Games)

TM Sunrise.. 1000s of hours on PC. Best online Times in my life 😅

finally

justice for trackmania turbo

New environment in tm 2020!

Nice list. Thanks.

i definitely wouldn't be lumping TMO, TMS and TMUF into one entry. There are huge differences between them, especially in the track design, menu design and music. Sunrise is one of two trackmania games with licensed music (the other being Turbo) which automatically puts it above the rest imo.

Also i feel like TMO is a very scuffed game in general, full of that early 2000s eurojank. The handling is not that good (and not in a challenging way like Coast), the maps are super basic and the music is really repetitive.

Sunrise imo is the best, it's got the music, it's got the game modes (so many game modes), it's got the tracks! Since United the rack design has been heavily standardised in the "Nadeo Style" which TMO and TMS didn't have, but Sunrise's design was actually good.

TrackMania Turbo could've been great but because they did not implement online records (wtf...) nobody cared anymore after like 2 days.

Ive started my TM career with TM sunrise, then nations/united, then TM2, then Turbo, then todays TM.
I would rank them the following:

Rank 5: TM2. I was super hyped for TM2 and mostly Canyon because that was like THE sequel to Nations/United but it never got that popular. Nations was free and a lot of people simply werent willing to spend 20 bucks on Canyon. On top of that the base level of the Canyon physics were already hard, so somebody who isnt all that talented, was not gonna have that much fun with Canyon whereas the Stadium cars are super easy to pick up and yet hard to master. Theres a reason why the newest TM is basically only that Stadium car. Nations was by far the most popular Trackmania game, partly because of f2p, partly because the Stadium car was just so good. I liked Valley but it had a dead Multiplayer and you were through the campaign rather quickly, I hated Lagoon, I think Lagoon is pure garbage and I also hated Lagoon in any other previous TM. I dont see having "more cars" as an advantage if theyre shit. There is TM2 Stadium but I wouldnt count that game because its basically Nations slightly upgraded.

Rank 4: TM Turbo. First of all, dead Multiplayer. Most people including myself associate Trackmania with Multiplayer and TM Turbo just never had that going for itself. Yes it has probably the most packed Single Player experience and yes, I actually did score a gold medal in every.single.track. I know this game and the harsh truth is that some of those cars are garbage to handle. Some of those cars are so bad at being controlled in a precise manner and yet you drive on tracks that require precision. That is just not a good design philosophy. And thats not just me "being bad", I did achieve all gold medals which is why I know for a fact that the last couple of tracks were only even driven by a couple of thousand players. People quit the game before finishing it, that is objectively not good. The Dark Souls franchise is notorious for its difficulty and yet A LOT of players still finish those games because it does difficulty right. It rewards overcoming an obstacle immensely. TM Turbo doesnt do that. You go from one impossible track to another and all you get is a gold medal which is just like any other gold medal. Not to say there is something wrong with the rewards but late into the campaign when the difficulty ramps up, it just wasnt that fun to play imo. I just finished it so I can say I finished it. I must have spent like 10 hours on Map 178. Of course with hard games there is always frustration but when I face Midir in Dark Souls 3 and take multiple hours, at least it feels like a genuinely well designed and fair fight and while I might get frustrated due to lots of dying, I can still appreciate the insanely good design of that boss. Its moveset, the arena and slowly figuring out the weaknesses of that boss and what I have to do to beat it. I dont have that feeling in TM Turbo, it felt straight up stupid towards the end. If you want a proper challenge and be one of the few to beat TM Turbo, go ahead but I dont associate Trackmania with a single player campaign, so it scores low for me.

Rank 3: Todays Trackmania. The driving itself is brilliant. It is basically Stadium but expands on it with a lot more surfaces which kind of makes more cars unnecessary which I dont have any problems with if Im being honest. Some surfaces are a bit whacky, I hate the ice in this game with a passion and it just feels out of place. But my issues are outside the driving experience. The business model is highly questionable and personally I believe it drags down the game a lot. It is confusing, it is only time limited, the entire menu is confusing to anybody new, I have no idea what they were thinking. It could have been so easy. You look at League of Legends or your own Trackmania Nations and you have your business model right there. You make the game free to play and have all major features unlocked from the get go (unlike right now) and earn your money by selling cosmetics. Avatars, borders, car skins, car horns, winning themes. Youd have a lot more players and you would probably also make a lot more money. There actually is an arcade "racing" game that does this right now. Its called Rocket League. Free to play, make money with skins, goal animations and so on. If Trackmania would have the Rocket League model, it would be so much more successful. Instead they rely on the hardcore fans who spend money on the subscription. Admittedly, it doesnt cost all that much but its still a bad business model.
What I will say is that I do enjoy the new 3v3 ranked system, I think its a lot of fun, especially with 1-2 friends. And the games multiplayer is obviously alive and well.

Rank 2: TM Sunrise. I will be honest with you, a lot of it is nostalgia. TM Sunrise is the first proper Multiplayer game I have ever played. I remember me and my buddy bought it, jumped into the Multiplayer and had no idea what to do in that game and we literally asked the folks in the chat what we were supposed to do since the concept is a little unique. Like previously mentioned, I associate Trackmania with Multiplayer and the Multiplayer experience at the time was incredible. There was one car out of the three which was massively more popular than the other two which was the Sport/Island car. It had a rather simple handling but was reasonably easy to pick up and hard to master. What made this car so different was the speed. This was a high speed car, especially compared to the Bay and the Coast car which were relatively slow. And this is why I dont mind the new TM not having more than 1 car, LITERALLY nobody drove the Bay and Coast car in the Multiplayer besides a handful of people. 90-95% drove the sport/island car because it simply was the most fun to drive.

Rank 1: The Goat, TM Nations/United Forever. The birth of the Stadium car which still exists in todays Trackmania. In terms of popularity, TM Nations/United was by far the most popular part of the series. Nations was free to play and yet had all the essential features unlocked. The game was super easy to pick up, the game was free and the cars had incredibly good physics. Simple physics, very easy to pick up and yet again, hard to master. Why is this important? So that less talented players also get to enjoy the game and that is necessary for a healthy playerbase. A game cannot survive with only "good" players having any fun, it needs to be fun for bad players as well, else you end up like Starcraft 2 for example. And of course compared to today, Nations/United was the wild west when it came to Avatars, horns, car skins. I remember having a lil jon horn which was just hilarious and me and my buddy remember that horn to this day.
What frustrates me the most is that Nadeo/Ubisoft failed to capitalize on this game. Yes, from the developers/publishers view, while this game was highly popular, it probably didnt make much money. Sure, some picked up United if they really enjoyed Nations but that is 30€ spend once and thats it. But charging 20€ for Canyon was not the way to go. People have gotten used to Nations being free and it should have been continued. Canyon should have been completely free but Canyon also failed with its physics not being easy to pick up and bad players not having a great time with the Canyon physics. Sure, for a good driver the Canyon physics are amazing. The track is generally very narrow and drifting through those can be amazingly rewarding but thats not many people who get to have that enjoyment. And the thing is, Canyon was received rather well, the press liked it, it had great graphics, the damage model was cool, in theory it has everything, it doesnt do anything really badly but very few people genuinely loved Canyon the way people loved Nations. And the numbers for the playerbase prove that. So many people just continued playing Nations completely ignoring the release of Canyon.
I genuinely believe Trackmania could have kept its popularity after Nations but somehow Nadeo and Ubisoft were out of touch with what made Trackmania so popular in the first place. They played their cards wrong and basically shrunk Trackmania into a niche within the racing genre rather than a big time franchise. I think Ubisoft wasnt yet involved when Nations/United was released and popular so likely a big publisher has once again ruined the fun for everybody else.

Turbo is the best hands down and the best course in my opinion is down and dirty valley track 60 and I ended up getting the canadian record on it although rollercoaster lagoon is the best environment

Personal top 3 is TM² Canyon, TM 2020 and TM² Stadium.
Tried a bunch of the others and those either felt unsatisfying (most of the TM United Forever environments and TM² Valley) or janky (TM Nations Forever Stadium environment with more consistently disruptive bugs compared to later Stadium versions).

I got into the series back when United was the main game and to this day that era of the community is simply unmatched. I love jumping on 2 from time to time but the community feels splintered now and I entirely blame Ubisoft.

If you’re a big fan of those roller coaster tracks and haven’t already played it, F-Zero GX might be right up your alley.

Before i watch the Rankings i want to state that Trackmania should be renowed as the GOAT of Racing games as it has the best longevity of ALL Racing games and still has good titles unlike Nfs that died in 2009/ GT that died after GT4 Forza that died after the first Horizon this is the best Racing game etc

i'm a tmnf guy, maybe i'll upgrade to tmuf one day. i like the trackbuilding options of tm2020 in theory, but in practice the trackbuilder being locked behind a subscription sucks. the whole live service aspect of tm2020 generally really turns me off from it, i wish there was a one-time payment option to get access to the trackbuilder and a set of standard tracks, basically like tmnf, and the subscription allows access to live content, like the seasonal campaigns and track of the day. i feel like tm2020 lacks one crucial aspect, and that's tracks being hunted for years. people still try to get new world records for tmnf maps and just by saying the mapname, everybody knows or can easily figure out which map it is. in tm2020, on the other hand, there don't seem to be those standard tracks, the closest thing probably being the seasonal campaigns. we're way more likely to hear about some crazy cut on E05 rather than a new WR run on some campaign track from last year. idk, maybe i'm just biased by watching too many of wirtual WR history videos, but to me it feels like there was this culture around constantly improving on year-old records and now it's shifted to trying to be the fastest player of the day and of the season and then never seeing those maps again, no history to them.

TMUF, for its stunt mode on all 7 environments, is for me, number 1.

I grew up with Trackmania Nations and United, both on pc, I remember seeing Trackmania Turbo on Steam and thinking 'hmm, looks weird' and then never touching it or hearing opinions on it, what a shame, hearing your thoughts on it really makes me wanna get it, especially after trying Trackmania 2020 and being kinda disappointed, especially by the ridiculous monetization bullshit they're doing with it...
Great video!

I think it's odd to treat TMUF as a single game when it really is three separate games in one. I also disagree about Turbo being even in the top 3, it just doesn't play like a TM game as much. Decent list otherwise

The new TrackMania game has a subscription model, because they didn't want to further fragment the community across multiple games and wanted to keep on improving the same game for an indefinite amount of time. Also, all tiers are reasonably priced once you consider that club access allows you to create your own servers without extra charge and those need to get maintained, which costs money.

i absolutely loved tm turbo, it's sad you don't find many people playing nowadays. and that ubisoft gave up on it for a subscription game

My first trackmania game was TrackMania Demo. I played it with my best friend at 2004 when I was 9 yo. So much nostalgia. But my ultimate favorite trackmania is united forever. The best thing is that you can envimix tracks like driving with stadium car in Rally of desert car in bay. And tmuf ost is the best ever. Second best ost has in tm2 but tm2020 ost is a total disappointment. It's too e-sport/Olympic - ish. I can't listen to it longer than 5 minutes.

My top 3:
1 - Trackmania Nations Forever
2 - Trackmania2
3 - Trackmania Turbo

Forever is first for me because its the cheapest way to get into Trackmania, since its free on steam, and its the game which made the scenario popular, so it holds a good place even not being diverse or having other racing styles, its has the most active community, insane amount of tracks and its easy to mod and get even crazier maps.. Trackmania2 is because of the bundle, Canyon, Valley and Stadium, all of them have great graphics, less handling glitches like Nations and awesome handling, my favorite is Canyon too. Then Trackmania Turbo in third place just becausee it doesn't have a good multiplayer, its kinda abandoned but its single played mode saves it, the graphics are insane, scenarios are well designed and beautiful and we have variety of cars that handle differently.. Its a solid game too.

tm wii is underrated

my man, you cant rank turbo and maniaplanet differently, as a main turbo player, the only things going for it are the decorations and over the top arcade eastethic and the campaign, for absolutely every other sense, Tm2 is just the superior version

Trackmania Turbo is awesome

Hates on tm2020 for only being stadium, proceeds to say that stadium is the traditional style for trackmania games like 5 minutes later. Make up ur mind goddamn.

good to see someone agrees with me and the mixed reviews on steam for trackmania turbo continue to puzzle me

Trackmania 1 from Ubisoft was totally a great game, but Ubisoft itself ruined it.

Funny to hear you say Lagoon is your favorite environment in TM:Turbo. I put it in hard last place. I want to cave my skull in on some of those awful sand / beach tracks, the handling on them is excruciating and hitting the stupid low palm trees and rocks for the 100th time is not fun. The rollercoaster stuff is ok I guess.

I had almost all of the author medals in Turbo DS, was grinding it 10 years ago... ohhh damn the memories

I'm Trackmania United Forever Forever

turbo (2016) was my first trackmania game. love to see its your #1

Trackmania Original and Sunrise had some interesting tracks, and in United they limited the sountracks to only one for each environment.

I had very low fate for turbo to get to top, its my favourite game and i always knew its underreated

why noone like tm2020 it means we get more games as devs now have money

my first tm was nations forever
and my other tm i played was united forever

i loved it as a child! this series makes me nostalgic

Nuh-day-oh

You have completely missed what TM 2020 is about. If you review it based on what Nadeo provides with the base game it‘s pretty lacking, yes. But Cup of the Day really is just the beginning of the community aspect of it. You can basically find everything ranging from huge RPG and trial maps and very well-built competitive maps that are far better than any game‘s campaigns to tracks with very creative scenery that don’t look like Stadium at all anymore, Bingo, Flagrush, Mario Kart and Shitfest with intentionally awkward and meme-heavy tracks. Nadeo provided the perfect amount of freedom for the community to build everything they had in mind and the creativity is endless, they surprise you with new tracks that you wouldn‘t even have thought were possible over and over again. It is by far the best Trackmania game because of what the community made out of it and because Nadeo is way worse at their own games than the community. Yes, the subscription is kinda annoying, but 40€ for 3 years of club access on sale also isn‘t that much considering the endless amounts of great content you get access to. Nadeo still has to improve, but it‘s already fantastic!

I played all TM since the first one ; and i can't say tm Sunrise have been the most important in my gamer life !! but te ambiance of comunity was better at the first one ! i played all all of tem and still got tm turbo wich as you say is incredible ! today i play again on the series xbox and felt blasted again of what it became !!! really it's a part car game history and this history is far from its end !! long life to TM !

Turbo + Steam Deck = ❤MAGIC❤

Turbo is a great game, but something you missed is just how difficult it is. Its accesible in a pick-up-and-play sense, sure, but if you want to access the later tracks you have to gold medal everything prior, and that is a serious undertaking. I platinumed it a while ago and it was, without doubt, my greatest gaming achievement.

9 months too late, but something that would probably feel like it's worth getting the subscription for 2020, would probably be what Nadeo did with NF and UF, you get Stadium for free, but if you get the subscription, you get access to Valley, Canyon, and Lagoon, and like with their current model, you're able to keep the tracks after your sub expires.

Dude Jesus Christ your video is already 20 mins, anyone here to see it is already aware of the game and how it works so spare us the annoying 5 minute intro

Uhh. Im on ps4 so ive pretty much only played turbo. Its good but i wouldn't say the best. Ive tried 2020 once and i think its way better. It looks better, handles better, has a way better track editor and interface. But thats probably because my fav environment is the stadium

I have TMNF (Trackmania Nations Forever) and Trackmania 2020. I enjoy both of them. My fav. track on TMNF has to be C05-Endurance. My fav on TM2020 might be Drum Beating(Track of the day for Feb 17 2023)

For me Sunrise Extreme ist the best, then comes original.
Nations is... ok. Stadium isn't that great in my opinion.

I played track mania ds for hours as a kid, and this video has inspired me to get back into the series, these new graphics look crazy!

A few inaccuracies here: Build to Race for Wii had online multiplayer. Also, it’s not a port of United; the physics engine is completely different and so are the tracks. In addition, if I remember correctly, TrackMania DS did have multiplayer, but it was local only and not online.

i don't like in stadium 2 that every is so glossy, looks like everything is covered in oil.

The best Trackmania is the United Forever by far

Puts TM2020 just after the wii version. Holy shit - it’s the best Trackmania ever made by far. Clubs, cotd, totd, much bigger playerbase, best environment