1995
Founded
One of the earliest gaming sites on the web
Report
Should I Use GameFAQs?
Free fan-written video game FAQs, cheats, reviews, and message boards since 1995
Worth it
Worth itUse it if you're stuck on an older game and want a fan-written text walkthrough — it's free and still the go-to archive for retro titles.
Free text walkthroughs still king for retro games; dated site and boards — skip if you want video guides.
Confidence: Medium
40,000+
FAQs & guides
Fan-contributed, per site homepage
$0
Price
No paid tiers found in sources
Fandom
Owner
Acquired with GameSpot and Metacritic, 2022
Value for money
5
Free, decades of content
Ease of use
3
Dated, text-heavy interface
Feature depth
4
Guides, cheats, reviews, boards, videos
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- mediumOwned by Fandom since 2022 (with GameSpot, Metacritic); long-term direction tied to Fandom⁶
- mediumBoard culture clashes pushed some 20-year veterans to quit entirely⁵
- lowFree site means no support SLA; outages tracked on third-party status pages10
- lowGuess: Fandom monetizes via display ads, so expect cluttered pages⁶
Best for
- Retro gamers stuck mid-game
- Text-walkthrough purists
- Completionists hunting obscure titles
- Old-school forum dwellers
Not for
- Video learners — YouTube walkthroughs fit better
- Modern-game players wanting wiki-style quick answers
- Anyone allergic to old-school forum culture
- Buyers expecting support, SLAs, or anything to purchase
Pricing
Free
$0
- All walkthroughs, cheats, reviews, boards
- Free account needed to post
Security
No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
What users say
Retro-gaming loyalists call it the definitive walkthrough archive, while critics find the site and boards dated and sometimes hostile.
“Even in 2025, I still use GameFAQs”
“Its honestly impressive that gamefaqs is still running”
“GameFAQs is a cesspit and it was time to leave for good.”
Alternatives
Compare GameFAQs with each alternative.
YouTube
Video walkthroughs for modern games
GameFAQs vs YouTubeRAWG
Modern game database and discovery alternative
Metacritic
Better for review scores than walkthroughs
GameFAQs vs MetacriticGame-specific wikis and Reddit
Faster, community-maintained answers for new releases
Full analysis
Based on 20+ public sources; heavy on Reddit discussion and site pages, no formal review ratings found.
Sources
- GameFAQs - Video Game Cheats, Reviews, FAQs, Message Boardsgamefaqs.gamespot.comofficial
review
news
- GameFAQs Alternatives - AlternativeToalternativeto.netreview
- GameFAQs deleting "negative" PSP Reader Reviews - Nintendo World Reportnintendoworldreport.comnews
- What motivates GameFAQs walkthrough authors - ResearchGateresearchgate.netreview
- Is Gamefaqs.com down? Live statusdownforeveryoneorjustme.comsecurity
- GameFAQs security pagegamefaqs.gamespot.comsecurity
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