Today is a great day for Godzilla fans. Not only are Apple TV+ subscribers now able to watch Monarch: Legacy of the Monsters, but you'll also be able to find out if your favorite kaiju has been crowned the greatest movie monster of all time by IGN's audience.
Yes, after thousands and thousands of 1v1 battle with match-ups like Godzilla (Heisei Era) vs. MonsterVerse's King Kong and Ghostbusters' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man vs. Jurassic Park's T-Rex, a new King of the Monsters has been crowned. But was it a Godzilla?
Monster-sized drumroll please...
MonsterVerse's Godzilla, a key player of course in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, as well as three feature films and the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire movie, has defeated the rest of the terrifyingly large competition with an impressive 88.5% win percentage.
Godzilla may have first roared onto the scene in 1954's Godzilla, but he's still just as popular today. This is in big part thanks to that connected universe that first began with 2014's Godzilla. It also doesn't hurt that he gets to go up against and then also team up with the legendary King Kong.
But let's be honest: Who doesn't love a giant monster who has been both a hero and a villain and can use such devastating powers as his iconic Atomic Breath?
The love for Godzilla is clear as three different Godzilla variants - Godzilla (Heisei Era), Godzilla (Millennium Era), and Godzilla (Shōwa Era) - took spots #2, #3, and #5. The only non-Godzilla winner in the top 5 was King Ghidorah, and they were from Godzilla: King of the Monsters!
MonsterVerse's King Kong took sixth place, and was followed by Godzilla (Reiwa Era), King Ghidorah from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla: King of the Monsters' Rodan, and Ghostbusters' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
On the other end of the monster spectrum we have the Giant Bird from The Giant Claw with a win percentage of only 18.3%. The Giant Claw, while great in its own right, was from 1957 and has not recieved a remake or anything that would make that giant bird relevant today.
This was the case for some of the monsters that placed near the bottom, and others were just not powerful enough or big enough to hang with the behemoths we previously talked about. These include the Monsters from Monsters, The X From Outer Space's Guilala, Gamera vs. Barugon's Barugon, Pacific Rim's Baby Kaiju, the titular Monstrum from Monstrum, Son of Godzilla's Kamacuras, King Kong Escapes ' Gorosaurus, The Valley of Gwangi's Gwangi, and Q: The Winged Serpent's Quetzalcoatl.
The giant movie monster world is a tough one, especially if you are hoping to break into one of the top spots and go up against some of the most iconic monsters.
Are you wondering where your favorite giant movie monster landed, like maybe the original King Kong from 1933? (He took spot #18!) For all the rankings, you can check out the full list of where all 83 monsters that competed in this Face-Off ended up.
You can also see how it compares to our Giant Movie Monster Face-Off from 2021. Spoilers: You all loved Godzilla back then too.
If you'd like to learn more about why Godzilla is so beloved, we encourage you to check out our Godzilla Week coverage, including the best Godzilla movies, his atomic origins explained, and a visual history of everyone's favorite King of Monsters.
Also be sure to read our review of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, in which we said that it "makes a stronger case for character-driven storytelling in Legendary’s MonsterVerse than any of its big-screen outings."
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
