The Doctor Who franchise has grown over the years to encompass an incredibly vast universe. There are all sorts of aliens, interesting characters, and lots of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, nonsense strewn across the stars where The Doctor has carved a path.
Between each series, or rewatch of the last one, fans need something to keep them occupied and in the same space as The Doctor both metaphorically and as close to physically as humanly possible. That’s where video games come in, and there are quite a few good ones.
- The 10 Best Video Games for Doctor Who Fans
- 1) Doctor Who: The Runaway
- 2) Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
- 3) Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality
- 4) Doctor Who: The Edge of Time
- 5) Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
- 6) Doctor Who: Return to Earth
- 7) Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
- 8) Doctor Who: The Adventure Games
- 9) Top Trumps: Doctor Who
- 10) Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors
- Bonus: Magic the Gathering: Universes Beyond Doctor Who
Related: Bringing Doctor Who To Magic: The Gathering – Gavin Verhey Interview
The 10 Best Video Games for Doctor Who Fans
Below, we’ve highlighted the 10 best video games that Doctor Who fans can play to keep themselves immersed in the Doctor Who universe. Players agree these games are the best in terms of gameplay and story, which is essential to help newcomers enjoy themselves when settling in for a new adventure with The Doctor.
The games aren’t listed in any particular order. We believe each one has its merits and is as worthy of being played by Doctor Who fans as the next. However, if fans are looking for a list to work with, we’d suggest starting at the top and working down to the bottom.
1) Doctor Who: The Runaway
Platforms: Steam for PC
In Doctor Who: The Runaway, players awaken in the TARDIS alongside The Doctor after a collision. She tells players that a creature called Volta needs their help to get home, and there are troublesome pursuers on the way to try to take it for their own nefarious plans.
This game is a short, first-person adventure designed for VR that throws players into an exciting Doctor Who short with the Series 11 iteration of everyone’s favorite time traveler. It’s intense, has tonnes of interactivity, and never lets players relax enough to feel bored — exactly what someone would want from their adventure with The Doctor.
2) Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
Platforms: Steam for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Android & iOS
In Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, players find a phone. It’s an inconspicuous object at first, but then things start happening, and a mystery unfolds. Someone is missing, and a dark story unfolds around the player that they just can’t escape.
This game is a fantastic little entry from the same developer as SIMULACRA and Sara is Missing. It’s a found-phone game that gives off all the creepy vibes that horror fans might want, but in a nicely packaged Doctor Who title they won’t be able to put down.
3) Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality
Platforms: Steam for PC, PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo Switch.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality is the first in a duo of games made for VR but available for anyone else to play without a headset. It stars two versions of The Doctor and a whole host of familiar foes in a first-person narrative adventure that fans aren’t going to want to put down until they’ve finished it. Anyone who enjoys Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels will find everything they want and more in this title.
4) Doctor Who: The Edge of Time
Platforms: Steam of PC, PlayStation & Meta Quest.
The second in the aforementioned duo of first-person Doctor Who games, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, is more of a mystery game than anything else, but its content makes it worthy of being listed among the scariest horror games out there.
As with The Edge of Reality, this game is like a few episodes of Doctor Who squeezed into one. There are multiple threats to help The Doctor deal with and many interactive scenes to work through that will help advance the story and make players feel like they’re a living part of the world.
5) Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
Platforms: Windows, PS3 & PS Vita.
Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock was set to be one of the greatest Doctor Who games of all time. It stars a pretty great rendition of Matt Smith as The Doctor in an adventure game that spans the period between two episodes of the series, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead.
While the sequels to this game were eventually canned, it’s still worth playing. The story sees players traveling around time collecting pieces of The Eternity Clock, a device that holds a record of everything that’s ever happened and will happen. It’s just the right sort of vibe for the Matt Smith days and, in our opinion, is very deserving of a playthrough.
6) Doctor Who: Return to Earth
Platforms: Wii
When it was first released, Doctor Who: Return to Earth was incredibly poorly reviewed and dubbed an insult to Doctor Who. However, like a fine wine, niche Wii games age incredibly well and are a lot of fun to play over a decade after their release.
The game stars Matt Smith as The Doctor in an adventure where he and Amy have arrived on the Lucy Gray. This was the first ship to return to Earth after the 26th century’s solar storms. But all is not right. The ship has been boarded by Cybermen and Daleks after the Time Axis, and The Doctor must stop them.
7) Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
Platforms: Nintendo DS
The only games that have aged better than bad TV to video game renditions for the Nintendo Wii are bad TV to video game renditions for the Nintendo DS. We adore our DS and look for any chance to play it, and more than 100 Doctor Who puzzles seem like more than one good reason to pick it up and play.
This game doesn’t feature the usual puzzle fodder DS fans will expect. It’s said to be funny and thoughtful, perfect for the source material, considering that Matt Smith was The Doctor at the time of its development.
8) Doctor Who: The Adventure Games
Platforms: Windows PC & Mac.
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games aren’t technically available anymore, but a quick search around online will reveal several locations where dedicated fans have preserved every episode. Yes, this was an episodic series, and it’s brilliant.
Starring Matt Smith as The Doctor, this set of adventure episodes takes players across time and space, facing off against several sets of foes. Fair warning: we remember the Shadows of the Vashta Nerada episode being particularly terrifying.
9) Top Trumps: Doctor Who
We attempted to find good quality image of this game, but unfortunately, they don’t seem to exist. Any search for its name will bring up the card game, not the video game, but they’re effectively the same thing.
Platforms: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii & PS2.
Look, we know how this looks, but trust us, Top Trumps are the best if you grew up in the 90s. They were big enough to somehow get a licensing deal with mega-brands like Doctor Who and are still fairly collectible.
This game is just a digital version of Top Trumps with Doctor Who cards. There’s nothing more special than that. Players pick an attribute from the card they draw and hope it beats the card their opponents hold. If it doesn’t, the draw moves over to the opponent, and the game continues. It’s simple, but it’s fun for a while and a great look back at where Doctor Who games have come from.
10) Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors
Platforms: Windows PC.
As the oldest Doctor Who game on this list, we don’t expect most people to pick it up. It’s a classic in every sense of the word, including the technology it was designed for. Luckily, it was at least designed for Windows PC, making it somewhat playable today.
The story revolves around the Graak, a creature that can help solve the battle between The Doctor, who is present in many of his past forms, and The Master. Players will explore their surroundings and work to solve puzzles to ultimately save the universe and send The Master packing. As usual. A really nice feature of this game is that it has several versions of The Doctor being fully voiced, a real gem of the past.
Bonus: Magic the Gathering: Universes Beyond Doctor Who
In 2023, Wizards of the Coast released an entire set of Magic the Gathering cards set in the Doctor Who universe. Players get to use every Doctor they could imagine and explore the edges of the franchise in cards they can use in major competitions or friendly matches at home. It’s such a fantastic set, and it even adds a few new mechanics for players to mess around and surprise others with.
