2024 could be mistaken, at first blush, as a down year for video games. The AAA publishers that once dominated the industry produced comparatively few offerings, with entries in popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto held for 2025. Nintendo didn’t release the successor to the aging Switch. And neither Microsoft nor Sony debuted a flashy mainstream exclusive — no disrespect to the lovable Astro Bot.
Despite those setbacks, 2024 wasn’t just a good year for games but a turning point. With few AAA marketing campaigns, the rest of the industry had room to bloom. Smaller projects, AA experiments, and ambitious releases from industry newcomers appeared each week. Forget the days of scarcity. Abundance has become a blessing for those of us who play games and a potential threat to the people who hope to make a living creating them.
For this list, we needed to select the 50 best games from thousands. We accomplished that exhausting feat with the help of the entire Polygon team. We share a collective, exhaustive interest in every video game niche, from an indie with 50 reviews on Steam to the sprawling updates for the biggest games on the planet. Which is to say, if the game mattered in 2024, at least one of us played it.
We can’t guarantee you will agree with the ranking, but here’s a promise we can make: You’ll find something new to love. The releases of 2024 don’t look like those of 2014. For the better! We live in a time of plenty, where we no longer need to champion one game everyone should play, but countless games — one of which will feel as though it were made just for you.
How the Polygon top 50 list works
Everyone who works at Polygon had the opportunity to submit a ballot of up to 25 games they liked this year. Those ballots could be ranked or tiered (and you can see everyone’s top 10s in the comments below). We then took the results of those ballots to make the list you see below.
Any game released in the U.S. this calendar year or that had a major update is eligible, but since we are publishing this in early December, some December releases are underrepresented. We hope you’ll find a new favorite here on our list of the best games of 2024.
Honorable mentions
Games that received votes but did not crack our top 50: Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, Persona 3 Reload, Grunn, SteamWorld Heist 2, Nine Sols, League of Legends Season 14, Infinity Nikki, Diablo 4, Content Warning, God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla, Webfishing, NHL 25, Teamfight Tactics set 12: Magic n’ Mayhem, Summerhouse, The Plucky Squire, Pepper Grinder, Skald: Against the Black Priory, Cat Quest 3, Shapez 2, Schim, The Forever Winter, Crow Country, Crypt Custodian, SteamWorld Build, Cryptmaster, Lorn’s Lure, Pokémon TCG Pocket, Alan Wake 2: The Lake House, Honkai: Star Rail 2.0 (Penacony), Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town, Phoenix Springs, Halo Infinite (third-person mode and Halo 2 update), Galacticare, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, Valorant Episode 8: Defiance, Slice & Dice, Arctic Eggs, MLB The Show 24, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (campaign), Mouthwashing, Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior, Monster Hunter Now 2024 updates, Regency Solitaire 2, Peglin, Karate Survivor, Rusty’s Retirement, EA Sports College Football 25, Echo Point Nova, Children of the Sun, Riven, Bakeru, Still Wakes the Deep, Dress to Impress (2024 update), Flock, Straftat, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, Hollowbody, Buckshot Roulette, Thronefall, Genshin Impact 5.0 (Natlan), Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Manor Lords, One Btn Bosses, The Planet Crafter, Pro Cycling Manager 2024, TopSpin 2K25, Windowkill, Closer the Distance, Threshold, Devil Blade Reboot, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble, Coral Island 1.0, Conscript
The best games of 2024
A mini-list: Our favorite UFO 50 games
- Party House
- Rock On! Island
- Magic Garden
- Pingolf
- Lords of Diskonia
