There is no shame in asking for a bit of help when you are stuck, and this also applies to difficult games. A recent study by gaming accessory and tech retailer Currys surveyed 1,000 UK gamers and found that 29% watch a walkthrough on YouTube or 22% look online for a level guide in order to get through the difficult parts of a game. But which games are they searching for help with the most?
The same study analysed Google global search volume to find the games that are besting the most amount of people, and to seasoned gamers it will come as no shock that Elden Ring comes out on top, with an average of 49.5k monthly searches and nearly 600k searches in the past year for help with this action role-playing game. The base game came out in 2022, however, there will have been a resurgence of players thanks to the DLC (downloadable content), Shadow of Erdtree, which came out in June 2024. In fact, according to SullyGnome data, average viewers of Elden Ring streams on Twitch have increased by 207% over the past year.
The next most searched for walkthrough was for Final Fantasy 7, which gets 33.1k searches on average each month, with 371k searches over the past 12 months. It is unclear if searchers are playing the original 1997 version of the game or if they are playing the remake which comprises of Remake (2020) and Rebirth (2023), but there is high demand for help all the same.
The third game the most people are searching for help with is an old game, Pokemon FireRed/ LeafGreen, released in 2004 for the GameBoy advance, yet it still gets 27,100 searches per month across the world for walkthroughs and had 321,200 searches between October 2023 and September 2024.
The 15 video games gamers are searching for help with most across the globe
| Rank | Game | Keyword | Yearly searches (Oct 23-Sep 24) | GameFAQs difficulty rating (out of 5) |
| 1 | Elden Ring | elden ring walkthrough | 594,000 | 4.08 |
| 2 | Final Fantasy 7 | final fantasy 7 walkthrough | 371,400 | 3.02 |
| 3 | Pokemon Fire Red/ Leaf Green | pokemon fire red walkthrough/ pokemon leafgreen walkthrough | 321,200 | 2.84 |
| 4 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | legend of zelda ocarina of time walkthrough | 316,500 | 3.08 |
| 5 | Pokemon Heartgold/ SoulSilver | pokemon heartgold walkthrough/ pokemon soulsilver walkthrough | 261,600 | 2.87 |
| 6 | Super Mario RPG | super mario RPG walkthrough | 218,400 | 2.65 |
| 7 | Hollow Knight | hollow knight walkthrough | 198,000 | 3.89 |
| 8 | Hogwarts Legacy | hogwarts legacy walkthrough | 190,900 | 3.05 |
| 9 | Lost Lands 8 | lost lands 8 walkthrough | 189,900 | 4.33 |
| 10 | Resident Evil 2 | resident evil 2 walkthrough | 178,300 | 3.37 |
| 11 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | breath of the wild walkthrough | 171,300 | 3.42 |
| 12 | The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening | link awakening walkthrough | 166,200 | 2.86 |
| 13 | Fallout 4 | fallout 4 walkthrough | 164,300 | 2.79 |
| 14 | Sekiro: Shadows die twice | sekiro walkthrough | 153,600 | 4.5 |
| 15 | Pokemon Platinum | platinum pokemon walkthrough | 152,700 | 2.83 |
Elden Ring boss tops list of hardest main enemies in gaming
Although the aspect most gamers (47%) thought made a game difficult was “complex controls” 3 in 10 think that unforgiving enemies and bosses are an element that makes a game hard to complete.
The majority of gamers (34%) have spent 1-3 hours trying to beat a specific level or boss, but 18% admit it has taken them over 10 hours.
Using Google search volume, Currys were able to identify the bosses causing gamers the most grief, and considering the game came top of the list of ones gamers needed the most help with, it should then be of no surprise that an Elden Ring boss came out on top of the hardest bosses list too, more specifically Malenia, Blade of Miquella. There are 30,660 annual searches for “how to beat malenia” and the most viewed video walkthrough for this fight on YouTube, uploaded by Shirrako, has 6.26m views since its upload in 2022.
Another Elden Ring boss came in third place with 17,540 annual searches: Margit, the Fell Omen.
In second place is Psycho Mantis, who originally appeared in the first Metal Gear Solid game and also featured in the fifth instalment of this franchise. There have been 23,700 searches for “how to beat psycho mantis” over the past year. This boss was particularly difficult for gamers as part of the gameplay in the original required players to switch controller ports mid-play to defeat the boss.
The top 15 hardest video game bosses
- Malenia, Elden Ring
- Psycho Mantis, Metal Gear Solid
- Margit, Elden Ring
- Sans, Undertale
- Bed of Chaos, Dark Souls
- Genichiro Ashina, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Dark Link, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Blood Starved Beast, Bloodborne
- Ornstein and Smough, Dark Souls
- Balteus, Armored Core 6
- Vicar Amelia, Bloodborne
- Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
- King Dice, Cuphead
- Flamelurker, Demon Souls
- Hydra, God of War