There are dozens, if not hundreds, of great real-time strategy (RTS) games available for PC. Some of the best are featured in our Top 20 Real-Time Strategy Games list , but what are some great real-time strategy video game series? Is the number of sequels or games a good indicator of quality? Well, that’s not always the case. Sequels or sequels often try too hard to change or repackage what made the previous titles great. The following list contains the top five RTS series of all time, franchises whose games have been critically and commercially successful, release after release.

The StarCraft series began with the release of Starcraft by Blizzard Entertainment in 1998. The two games and four combined expansions of the series revolve around three factions waging a war for dominance of the galaxy. The franchise is known for its balanced gameplay between the three factions, as well as its addictive multiplayer skirmishes. Both games and their expansions also feature a single-player story campaign. All titles in the StarCraft series have been commercial and critical successes, with each winning numerous awards, including Game of the Year, upon their initial release.

Like the StarCraft series, Company of Heroes only has two full releases in the series, but they are two of the best RTS games ever. The first title, Company of Heroes, was released in 2006 and focuses on the Western Front of the European Theater of War. In addition to the main release, it has two expansion packs that added more armies, multiplayer maps, and a new single-player story campaign. Company of Heroes 2 was released in 2013 and has three major expansions/DLCs. A free-to-play massively multiplayer online game, Company of Heroes Online briefly entered open beta in South Korea in 2010 but was canceled the following year. Developer and publisher Feral Interactive created an iPad version of Company of Heroes that was released in February 2020.

The Age of Empires series is perhaps the most popular and respected franchise in the RTS genre. There are three main titles in the series (four if you count the Age of Mythology spin-off). The original Age of Empires begins in 1997 and takes players and their chosen civilization from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The subsequent releases of Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III move the historical timeline forward, with Age of Empires II beginning in the Dark Age and ending in the Imperial Age, while Age of Empires III begins in the Discovery Age and ends in the Industrial Age. A fourth entry is reportedly in development and will move the franchise into the 20th century.