head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.

Execution · Practiced Mastery
Chaotic vehicular destruction testing driving control and map knowledge.

Execution · Practiced Mastery
The original top-down crime sandbox where you rack up points causing mayhem across three cities.
Carmageddon: Max Damage leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Grand Theft Auto leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Carmageddon: Max Damage leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Carmageddon: Max Damage
Vehicular mayhem rewards precise ramming and recovery driving
Grand Theft Auto
Twitchy top-down driving and shooting under police pressure
Carmageddon: Max Damage leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Carmageddon: Max Damage
AI rivals follow routines, not your mind
Grand Theft Auto
Cops follow simple scripts; nothing adapts
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Carmageddon: Max Damage
Physics chaos and pickup spawns scramble outcomes
Grand Theft Auto
Chaotic traffic and wanted-level escalation surprise players
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Carmageddon: Max Damage
Knowing maps, shortcuts and wreck-economy wins events
Grand Theft Auto
Score targets reward learning missions and city layouts
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.