In the modern era of Stern Pinball machines, connected Spike 2 machines, scoring in excess of one billion for some (many?) players, is a worthy goal and milestone.
I first signed up for Stern’s Insider Connected in October 2021. For those curious when this was for you, check out your annual recap via your stats page here: https://insider.sternpinball.com/account/profile/stats
Earlier in 2024, I scored over two billion on Deadpool and captured some video shared to the PGM Tiktok showing this feat. Unfortunately, I wasn’t logged into my Insider Connected account, so it shows the game before the 2+ billion score, where I scored almost a billion as my highest Stern Spike 2 game:
Ever since my son bought and received delivery of Jaws premium, I’ve been playing daily. It took me 55 days to reach my first ever billion score game — officially, logged into my Stern Insider Connected account — and it happened on his Jaws pin. Picture of the score on the pin is below:
This happened on 5/6/2024, which is 923 days since I signed up for Stern Insider Connected.
I’ve come close to scoring over a billion on other games, notably: Star Wars and Venom. And I’ve hit around the half a billion mark on a few more: Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden and James Bond. I feel like with more practice and repeated plays all of these machines scoring over a billion is possible for me.
Games in the Spike 2 that are extremely unlikely to impossible to score over a billion include Bond 60th Anniversary, The Beatles.
The newest game, John Wick, appears to be what I’d gently label as an intermediate modern scoring game, which means 100-500 million will take some time playing to score. A billion seems like a very, very long game on John Wick, at least with current code — which is early and not 1.0 — so maybe it will turn into a higher scoring pin when code becomes final.
Jaws, by comparison, is a higher scoring game like Star Wars and Venom. Getting a billion on those games seems to be easier. I haven’t played John Wick, so take this completely with a grain of salt at this point, but it’s worth noting that getting a billion+ score on John Wick could be a serious challenge.
Ranking all 24 Spike 2 Stern Pinball machines based on scoring
Here’s how I’d rank the 24 Spike Sterns based on scoring. Others might rank these differently based on their skill and knowledge, and of course higher score tiers are possible for the games than indicated, these are merely a very generic guideline.
For example, if you want to play a Stern pinball game where scoring is easier, try Star Wars or Jaws. If you play The Beatles or Bond 60th Anniversary, do not expect very high scores comparatively.
High Scorers (500+ million – 1 billion+):
- Star Wars
- Jaws
- Deadpool
- Venom
- Jurassic Park
- Godzilla
Intermediate Scorers (100-500+ million)
- James Bond 007
- Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast
- Foo Fighters
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Avengers Infinity Quest
- Rush
- The Mandalorian
- Stranger Things
- John Wick (*estimate, based on gameplay reveal scores by Jack Danger and the designers)
- Batman ’66
Average Scorers (25-100+ million)
- Elvira’s House of Horrors
- Black Knight: Swords of Rage
- Aerosmith
Lowest Scorers
- Led Zeppelin
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Munsters
- The Beatles
- Bond 60th Anniversary
Scoring-wise, would you rank these differently? Sound off in the comments.
Hi Todd!
Does the ease of high scores matter alot to you, more the the fun of the gamplay modes. Star Wars is at the top of the high scoring tables, but not on your top 5 pinballs you would want to purchase. Are they’re alot of issues with Star Wars??
Thanks for reading! The ranking in this article is only based on how easy or hard it is for scoring, not my personal taste as in how much I like playing the machine and/or if I’d want to buy
Two different lists, if you will. This ranking is intended for people that want to know what Stern Spike 2 machines they should play that are easier (and harder) to score higher. At the end of 2024 or start of 2025, I will re-rank all the pins based on my personal preference here at PGM, referencing the 2023 ranking list. I plan to do this each year, adding in any new machines and changing the ranking based on my play during the year. Some will move up, some down, some will be newly added (like Jaws and John Wick so far in 2024).
Star Wars in and of itself isn’t a bad pinball experience, but it’s not in my personal top 10, as there are many Stern IC games I’d rather play before that one. A lot of faster ramps … maybe too many ramps(?) I do like the dodge the Asteroids minigame, the Tie Fighter bash the action button fast to score and some other elements of that game.