Game of Thrones is famous for killing off characters. However, many video games have treated their characters the same before the Game of Thrones books were written, and many will continue to do so long after the show's ending. Video games have a lot of genres, and are not afraid to get dark and show a lot of death. While it is common for plenty of enemies to be killed by a protagonist, there are also games that kill off major characters just like Game of Thrones.
These games are gut-punching, and not just for one major character's death, but for many. Sometimes, even the protagonist dies at the end as the final body to count. While playing these games, it is best to know that anyone can die, sometimes due to player choices and sometimes in utterly unavoidable circumstances. Obviously, be warned, as there are major spoilers ahead for various game titles. Also note this is a comparison by the percentage of dead versus alive, not raw numbers, as Game of Thrones or a video game can just have way more characters than the other.
Games Where Most Major Characters Die
One of the most popular games recently, Elden Ring, is a big example of a game where dead characters outweigh the living. In the beginning, there are a lot of NPCs to interact with. As the game progresses, though, nearly all of them die. They are either driven mad and have to be killed, are killed by each other, or are murdered by the dangers of the Lands Between. The player has a tiny bit of wiggle room to get some Elden Ring characters to live instead of die, but many more are fated to perish.
Telltale's Walking Dead is more merciless than the TV show, as every season of the game kills off nearly all of its characters. The most brutal was the first season, where the protagonist himself also died at the end. By the last episode of the last season, most characters met have died in some way or another.
Every title of the God of War series has shown that anyone that relates to Kratos is likely going to die tragically in some way or another. This has happened to every god, human, and titan that Kratos meets. Usually, they are killed by Kratos himself, be they his friend or foe, by accident or on purpose. He has killed his entire family in Greece, with Atreus being the longest in-game survivor of his own father.
Danganronpa is a big series for killing off its fleshed-out characters. Every game has only a couple of survivors when there was once an entire class of people. The entire series is about solving murders, with each chapter killing off at least two characters.
In Drakenguard, NieR and NieR: Automata, most characters die in the true ending. Even in non-true endings, a lot of characters die. In NieR, most die also knowing that the survivors will be doomed. In Automata, every character can die when all the endings add up. Ending E does, however, undo this in a meta fashion.
The Fire Emblem series has a lot of death, as the strategy game usually utilizes permadeath for its fainted characters. Outside of just the strategy battles, the games' story often kills off a lot of characters. The most recent addition to the series, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, is particularly brutal because every path forces the player to kill a fraction of their former students. There is also Persona 3, which is unlike Persona 5 in that it kills off its protagonist and many of the other main characters at the end.
Of course, there are also RPG games where choices can get nearly an entire cast of characters killed off. This can be done in the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age series, Until Dawn, The Quarry, the Fallout series, the Elder Scrolls series, Undertale, and more. These games can count, depending on the choices the player makes, meaning there are many games that give Game of Thrones some competition when it comes to killing beloved characters.