The Doom games in order of release are Doom (1993), Doom II (1994), Final Doom (1996), Doom 64 (1997), Doom 3 (2004), Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (2005), Doom (2016), Doom Eternal (2020) and Doom: The Dark Ages (2025), plus the Revelations expansion for The Dark Ages on 7 July 2026 (Wikipedia’s Doom franchise page). In story order the Slayer’s line runs Doom, Doom II, Doom 64, The Dark Ages, Doom (2016), Doom Eternal, and Doom 3 sits outside it.
One claim you will see repeated is that “Doom (2016) is a sequel to Doom 64”. The evidence is narrower than that: the 2016 game only implies that its Slayer is the old marine (USgamer’s Doom 64 Lost Levels piece), and Wikipedia calls it a reboot. The link that ties the two together comes from Doom Eternal, and the gap between them is still open. This guide separates what the games and developers confirm from what fans infer, and it contains light spoilers for the whole series.
Quick Start: Which Doom Should You Play First?
If you only want one answer: start with Doom (2016) and play forward. That is the cheapest way in and it is where the modern story begins. Use the list below to pick your route.
- Want modern Doom only? Play Doom (2016), then Doom Eternal, then The Dark Ages. Release order works because The Dark Ages explains itself.
- Want the full Slayer story? Play Doom and Doom II, then Doom 64 with its Lost Levels, then The Dark Ages, Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal.
- Want the history? Play in release order and treat Doom 3 as a separate horror game.
- Short on time? Skip Final Doom and Resurrection of Evil. Neither is a link in the Slayer’s story as far as id has said.
- Playing on a modest PC? The Dark Ages needs a ray-tracing-capable GPU, so read our Doom: The Dark Ages best PC settings guide before you buy.
Doom Games in Order of Release
There are nine releases if you count Final Doom and Resurrection of Evil, and seven stand-alone games if you do not. That is why you will see different totals: Wikipedia’s own entry calls The Dark Ages the “eighth main entry” (Wikipedia’s Doom: The Dark Ages entry), while its Doom 64 entry calls that game the second spin-off after Final Doom (Wikipedia’s Doom 64 entry), so the count depends on what you include. We use nine releases below and flag which ones are expansion-sized.
| Release order | Game | Released | Made by | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doom | 10 Dec 1993 | id Software | Shareware launch, three episodes (a fourth came in 1995) |
| 2 | Doom II: Hell on Earth | 10 Oct 1994 | id Software | Picks up straight after Doom |
| 3 | Final Doom | 17 Jun 1996 | TeamTNT | TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, two level packs |
| 4 | Doom 64 | 4 Apr 1997 | Midway, id supervising | Nintendo 64 game set after Doom II |
| 5 | Doom 3 | 3 Aug 2004 | id Software | Horror retelling set on Mars |
| 6 | Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil | 3 Apr 2005 | Nerve Software | Doom 3 expansion |
| 7 | Doom (2016) | 13 May 2016 | id Software | The reboot that introduced the Doom Slayer |
| 8 | Doom Eternal | 20 Mar 2020 | id Software | Direct sequel to 2016, with The Ancient Gods DLC (Oct 2020, Mar 2021) |
| 9 | Doom: The Dark Ages | 15 May 2025 | id Software | Prequel; Revelations expansion released 7 Jul 2026 |
The takeaway: the series has two long droughts of new games, 1997 to 2004 and 2005 to 2016 (the 2012 BFG Edition was a remaster). Dates are North American release dates from Wikipedia’s Doom franchise page, checked 11 October 2026. Doom 64’s developer comes from Wikipedia’s Doom 64 entry.
Doom Games in Story Order
The Slayer’s story order is Doom, Doom II, Doom 64, The Dark Ages, Doom (2016), Doom Eternal. The only game that breaks release order is The Dark Ages, which came out last but happens before 2016. The table shows how firm each placement is.
| Story slot | Game | What happens | How firm is the placement? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doom | A marine fights through Phobos and Deimos into Hell (Wikipedia’s Doom (1993) entry) | Firm: it is the start |
| 2 | Doom II | Demons have invaded Earth; the marine goes back to Hell and kills the Icon of Sin (Doom II’s Wikipedia entry) | Firm: it follows Doom directly |
| side | Final Doom | Two extra level packs | Level packs rather than a new storyline |
| 3 | Doom 64 | The Mother Demon survived; the marine ends the game staying in Hell (USgamer’s Doom 64 Lost Levels piece) | Firm: it is set after Doom II, and Doom Eternal’s flashbacks place the Slayer after it |
| 4 | The Dark Ages | The Slayer fights for the Maykrs and the Night Sentinels on Argent D’Nur (Wikipedia’s Doom: The Dark Ages entry) | Firm: a prequel to 2016. Its exact gap after Doom 64 is not published |
| 5 | Doom (2016) | The Slayer wakes in a sarcophagus on Mars (Wikipedia’s Doom (2016) entry) | Firm: Doom Eternal is its direct sequel |
| 6 | Doom Eternal | The Slayer’s fight moves to Earth (Wikipedia’s Doom (2016) entry) | Firm |
| outside | Doom 3 | Mars, 2145, the Betruger teleporter experiments (Wikipedia’s Doom 3 entry) | No official placement |
The takeaway: five of the six story slots are firm, and the one that is not firm is the gap between Doom 64 and The Dark Ages. That gap is why no one can hand you a timeline with exact years.
How Doom Eternal Links Doom 64 to the 2016 Slayer
Doom Eternal is the game that says the Slayer is the old marine. Its flashbacks reveal the Slayer to be the original Doomguy, and Wikipedia’s Doom Eternal plot summary has the Sentinels find him badly wounded “sometime after Doom 64”. Where Doom 2016 only implied the connection, Eternal confirmed it.
The evidence has three parts, and they are not equal:
- The helmet (observed in the game). USgamer’s Doom 64 Lost Levels piece noticed that in the Argent D’Nur flashback the Doomguy wears the same helmet he has in Doom 64 artwork, and read that as settling the canonical status of Doom 64, which had been “up in the air”. That is one writer’s reading of a flashback, not an id statement.
- The Lost Levels (developer statement). The 2020 Doom 64 re-release added a short chapter. Nightdive’s James Haley told USgamer, as quoted by TechRaptor, that it takes place “shortly after [Doom 64’s] original campaign concludes”, and that the Mother Demon’s sister sends the marine away because he has been “messing up Hell non-stop”. The chapter does not mention Argent D’Nur, so it does not close the gap.
- The design link (development note). Wikipedia’s Doom Eternal plot summary adds that Eternal’s team cited the levels of Doom 64 as their inspiration, which fits a series that treats the N64 game as a relative rather than an orphan.
What nobody has confirmed: how the marine got from Hell to Argent D’Nur. USgamer’s suggestion that the Resurrector pulling him out of Hell could be what pushed him into the feral state he arrives in is a guess, and we mark it as one. GamingBolt’s timeline breakdown makes the same point: no single consistent chronology exists, and id has not published how the Slayer’s story picks up after Doom 64.
So the safe version of the claim is this: the 2016 Slayer is the Doom 64 marine, and 2016 comes after Doom 64 in his story. “Doom (2016) is a sequel to Doom 64” overstates it: we found no developer statement that calls 2016 a sequel to Doom 64, only the Eternal link.
Where Doom: The Dark Ages Fits
The Dark Ages is a prequel to Doom (2016) and a sequel in release order to Doom Eternal. It takes place after the Slayer’s arrival on Argent D’Nur and his empowerment, when the Maykrs weaponize him against Hell alongside the Night Sentinels (Wikipedia’s Doom: The Dark Ages entry).
Hugo Martin, the game director, calls it “Slayer Year One”. He told Shacknews that he and Marty Stratton talked for years during Eternal about doing a prequel, modelled on the comic Batman: Year One. Stratton added that the Slayer Testaments from 2016 were written with a game like this in mind, and that Eternal’s empty city, downed titans and abandoned mechs are leftovers of this war.
It does not end where 2016 begins. Martin told PC Gamer, as quoted by TechRadar’s March 2025 report, that “the story is that they collapsed a building on top of him and then put him inside of that sarcophagus that we find him in at the beginning of 2016. And this game doesn’t end that way.” He also said DLC was planned, which is the reason the coffin ending is off the table.
That DLC is Revelations, released 7 July 2026. Its official description has the Slayer “wounded and betrayed” and thrust into a purgatory, with new levels, new demons and a Chain Spear (GosuGamers). We could not find a source that places it exactly against the main campaign’s ending, so treat it as part of The Dark Ages’ slot rather than as a new one.
The Dark Ages is the one with a hard hardware floor. Its minimum spec needs a ray-tracing-capable GPU, which is why we wrote a separate Doom: The Dark Ages best PC settings guide, and the general PC game settings optimization guide covers the rest of your library.
Where Doom 3 Fits (It Doesn’t, Officially)
Doom 3 is a retelling, not a link in the Slayer’s chain. It is set on Mars in 2145, where a research facility’s teleporter experiments, run by Doctor Betruger, open a gateway to Hell (Wikipedia’s Doom 3 entry). It began as a plan by John Carmack in June 2000 to remake Doom with new technology, and the same entry lists it among the video game reboots.
The 2016 game is described as the first major Doom since Doom 3 (Wikipedia’s Doom (2016) entry), but id has not published a line saying how, or whether, Doom 3 connects. We looked for a primary interview that places it and did not find one. Fan wikis claim a developer called it canon, and we have not used that because we could not trace it to the original. Play Doom 3 as survival horror in its own right, and if you want the 2012 BFG Edition it bundles Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission.
The Best Order for Your Kind of Player
Release order is best for history. Story order is best for plot. Everyone else should shortcut. The advice really does change by player type:
| If you are… | Play this | Skip or delay this |
|---|---|---|
| New to Doom | Doom (2016), then Eternal, then The Dark Ages | Doom 3 (a horror retelling), Final Doom (level packs, no new storyline) |
| Here for the story | Doom, Doom II, Doom 64 + Lost Levels, The Dark Ages, 2016, Eternal | Doom 3; you lose no plot |
| A history or level-design fan | Release order, including Final Doom and Doom 3 | Nothing |
| Short on time | The Dark Ages, then 2016 and Eternal | Everything from 1993 to 2005 |
| A completionist | All nine releases, then Revelations | Nothing |
The takeaway: among the older games, Doom 64 is the one that feeds the modern story most directly, through Eternal’s flashback. If a game feels like homework, drop it.
How to Play Each Doom Game on PC Today
Verified against Steam’s store data on 11 October 2026. Prices change, so we left them out.
| Game | Where on PC | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Doom, Doom II, Final Doom | DOOM + DOOM II on Steam | The August 2024 Nightdive release; free upgrade for owners of either game, and it includes TNT, Plutonia, Sigil and a new episode, Legacy of Rust (TheSixthAxis) |
| Doom 64 | DOOM 64 on Steam | 2020 Nightdive remaster with the Lost Levels, unlocked by finishing the game or the secret level “Hectic” (USgamer’s Doom 64 Lost Levels piece) |
| Doom 3 | DOOM 3 (BFG Edition) on Steam | HD remaster of Doom 3 and Resurrection of Evil with The Lost Mission added (Wikipedia’s Doom franchise page) |
| Doom (2016) | DOOM on Steam | Single-player is the part that matters to the story |
| Doom Eternal | DOOM Eternal on Steam | The Ancient Gods DLC finishes its story |
| Doom: The Dark Ages | DOOM: The Dark Ages on Steam | Revelations is a separate add-on, announced at US$19.99 for base-game owners (GosuGamers) |
For the 1993 original on a modern machine, our best retro games for PC covers the source-port route if you own the files. Everything above is also on consoles, and Doom + Doom II and The Dark Ages have both been on Game Pass.
What to Play After You Finish Doom
Once you finish Revelations you have reached the newest content in the series. Doom is not an RPG, so if you want a slower game built around builds and loot, our best action RPGs of 2026 ranks the field. If you want to see what else launched in early 2026, our best games of Q1 2026 is the place to look. Neither guide covers Doom, because The Dark Ages came out in 2025. And if you like this order-first approach, the same treatment exists for our Assassin’s Creed games in order guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to play the Doom games in order?
No. The 2016 game was built as a new starting point, and The Dark Ages is billed as friendly to newcomers, so the modern games work without the old ones (GamingBolt’s timeline breakdown). The old games add background, not requirements.
Is Doom (2016) a reboot or a sequel?
It is a reboot in presentation and a continuation in story. Wikipedia’s Doom (2016) entry calls it a reboot, but Doom Eternal’s flashbacks later tie its Slayer to the Doom and Doom 64 marine, which is why we call it a soft reboot.
Is Doom Eternal a sequel to Doom (2016)?
Yes. Wikipedia’s franchise page lists Eternal as the sequel to the 2016 reboot (Wikipedia’s Doom franchise page), and its Doom (2016) entry describes Eternal as set years later (Wikipedia’s Doom (2016) entry).
Is Doom: The Dark Ages a prequel or a sequel?
It is a prequel. It was released after Eternal, but it covers the Slayer’s time on Argent D’Nur before the 2016 game starts (Wikipedia’s Doom: The Dark Ages entry). That is the reason its own release date and its story slot disagree.
Is Doom 3 canon?
Nobody has published a placement for it, so “canon” is the wrong word to rely on. Treat it as its own retelling. As far as id has published, skipping it loses you no plot from 2016, Eternal or The Dark Ages, which is why we left it outside the story order.
How many Doom games are there?
Nine releases if you count Final Doom and Resurrection of Evil, and seven stand-alone games without them. Wikipedia’s main-entry count for The Dark Ages differs from both, which shows the figure depends on your rules, not on id’s.
Sources
- Wikipedia. Doom (franchise). Release dates, developers and expansions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(franchise))
- Wikipedia. Doom (1993 video game). Plot and shareware model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(1993_video_game))
- Wikipedia. Doom II. Plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_II)
- Wikipedia. Doom 64. Development, spin-off status and 2020 re-release (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_64)
- Wikipedia. Doom 3. Setting and development (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_3)
- Wikipedia. Doom (2016 video game). Reboot status and plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(2016_video_game))
- Wikipedia. Doom Eternal. Plot summary and level-design inspiration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Eternal)
- Wikipedia. Doom: The Dark Ages. Prequel status, plot and Revelations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom:_The_Dark_Ages)
- USgamer (Mathew Olson). How Doom 64’s New “Lost Levels” Connect to Doom Eternal. Archived copy, 27 March 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20201103192821/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/how-doom-64s-new-lost-levels-connect-to-doom-eternal)
- TechRaptor. New DOOM 64 Levels Are Coming with the Port. 9 March 2020 (https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/new-doom-64-levels-are-coming-with-port)
- Shacknews. Doom: The Dark Ages directors on doing a prequel, expanding the battlefield and QuakeCon. 31 March 2025 (https://shacknews.com/article/143702/doom-the-dark-ages-march-2025-interview)
- TechRadar. Doom: The Dark Ages’ director confirms DLC is in the works. 11 March 2025 (https://www.techradar.com/gaming/doom-the-dark-ages-director-confirms-dlc-is-in-the-works-and-says-the-game-wont-end-the-way-2016s-doom-begins-if-we-took-it-all-the-way-to-that-point-then-that-would-mean-that-we-couldnt-tell-any-more-medieval-stories)
- GamingBolt. Where Does DOOM: The Dark Ages Fit in the Series’ Timeline? April 2025 (https://gamingbolt.com/where-does-doom-the-dark-ages-fit-in-the-series-timeline)
- GosuGamers. Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations campaign expansion revealed. 2026 (https://www.gosugamers.net/entertainment/news/78573-doom-the-dark-ages-revelations-campaign-expansion-revealed-launches-in-july-2026)
- TheSixthAxis. Doom + Doom II remaster has a brand new episode to beat. 9 August 2024 (https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2024/08/09/doom-doom-ii-remaster-has-a-brand-new-episode-to-beat-cross-platform-multiplayer-more/)
Steam store listings for Doom + Doom II, Doom 64, Doom 3 (BFG Edition), Doom (2016), Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages were checked through Steam’s store API on 11 October 2026.
Images on this page are AI-generated illustrations and our own graphics, not game footage. Doom is a trademark of id Software and Bethesda Softworks.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.