It’s been a great year for gaming and to celebrate Xbox has announced the Xbox Excellence Awards, created to honor the studios behind the games players loved most in 2024. The winning games were produced by studios ranging anywhere from tens to thousands of developers, spread out between more than 15 countries worldwide. Below you can find the list of winners and if you’ve missed out on any of the great games mentioned, be sure to check the Xbox Store for a collection of the winning games. Developers and publishers will be receiving their awards soon! Read below for more details:
Amazing games are at the heart of our mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. Now, more screens than ever can be an Xbox, and those screens are lit up by the incredible portfolio of games brought to life by talented developers around the world. These teams create unforgettable gaming experiences that engage and inspire players of all ages. As a thank you to the creators of those games, and to shine a light on the games that players loved in 2024, today we’re announcing the recipients of the 2024 Xbox Excellence Awards.
With over a thousand games launching annually on Xbox consoles, PC and cloud, this could be a case of simply picking a panel to decide – but the Excellence Awards are all about how you engaged with Xbox over the last year. To assemble the list, we selected four key categories which are indicators of players’ passion, engagement, and love for these games. Those four categories are:
• Store Rating: Highest-rated content across our stores released in 2024, with a minimum of 500 ratings.
• Player Engagement: Games with the highest average hours per player within the first six weeks of its release.
• Daily Active Users: Games, expansions, or major updates with the highest single-day active users in 2024. You may notice games that weren’t released in 2024 in this list – that’s because they got a significant update last year.
• Units Sold: Top-selling content across Xbox and Microsoft stores. The final list represents a diverse collection of titles produced by studios comprised of anywhere from tens to thousands of developers, located in 15 different countries worldwide. You can find the titles for each category – listed alphabetically – below.
Store Rating:
- Balatro
- Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
- Botany Manor
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Little Kitty, Big City
- LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- Nobody Wants to Die
- Persona 3 Reload
- Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1,2, 3
- Return to Grace
- Rounds
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
- Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
- Sonix x Shadow Generations
- Still Wakes the Deep
- The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- The Outlast Trials
- Unicorn Overlord
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Player Engagement:
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- F1 Manager 2024
- Farming Simulator 25
- FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail
- House Flipper 2
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- MLB The Show 24
- NBA 2K25
- New World: Aeternum
- NHL 25
- Path of Exile 2
- Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
- Skull and Bones
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
- WWE 2K24
Daily Active Users:
- Apex Legends
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Dead Island 2
- Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA SPORTS FC 25
- Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
- Fallout 4
- Fortnite
- Forza Horizon 5
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Marvel Rivals
- Minecraft
- MLB The Show 24
- Palworld
- Roblox
- Rocket League
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chernobyl
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Units Sold
- 7 Days to Die
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- DRAGON BALL: Sparkling! ZERO
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA SPORTS FC 25
- EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25
- Farming Simulator 25
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
- MLB The Show 24
- NBA 2K25
- NHL 25
- Palworld
- Phasmophobia
- Star Wars Outlaws
- The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
- WWE 2K24
Developers and publishers will receive their trophies shortly, so be on the lookout to see how they celebrate! Thinking of joining the many players that helped these games become award winners? Take a look at our collection of games that have received an Xbox Excellence Award for 2024 on the Xbox Store.
Stay tuned to GamingTrend for all your gaming, tech, and entertainment news!
Richard Allen is a freelance writer and contributing editor for various publications. While he enjoys modern gaming, he is a retro gamer at heart, having been raised on a steady diet of Contra, Mario, and Dragon's Lair. Chat with him via @thricetheartist on Twitter.
See below for our list of partners and affiliates:
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
