Xbox Excellence Awards 2024: Celebrating the Best Games of the Year
At Xbox, we’re passionate about bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. With over a thousand games launching annually on Xbox consoles, PC, and cloud, it’s a challenging task to pick just a few winners. However, the Xbox Excellence Awards are all about recognizing the games that truly stood out to our players over the last year.
How We Chose the Winners
To assemble the list, we selected four key categories that indicate players’ passion, engagement, and love for these games. These 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 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 Winners
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.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Balatro |
| Player Engagement | Dragon Age: The Veilguard |
| Daily Active Users | Apex Legends |
| Units Sold | 7 Days to Die |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden |
| Player Engagement | Dragon’s Dogma 2 |
| Daily Active Users | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 |
| Units Sold | Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Botany Manor |
| Player Engagement | EA Sports College Football 25 |
| Daily Active Users | Dead Island 2 |
| Units Sold | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth |
| Player Engagement | EA Sports FC 25 |
| Daily Active Users | Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred |
| Units Sold | Dragon Age: The Veilguard |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Little Kitty, Big City |
| Player Engagement | F1 Manager 2024 |
| Daily Active Users | EA Sports College Football 25 |
| Units Sold | Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Lollipop Chainsaw RePop |
| Player Engagement | Farming Simulator 25 |
| Daily Active Users | EA Sports FC 25 |
| Units Sold | Dragon’s Dogma 2 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Metaphor: ReFantazio |
| Player Engagement | Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail |
| Daily Active Users | Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree |
| Units Sold | EA Sports College Football 25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Nobody Wants to Die |
| Player Engagement | House Flipper 2 |
| Daily Active Users | Fallout 4 |
| Units Sold | EA Sports FC 25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Persona 3 Reload |
| Player Engagement | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth |
| Daily Active Users | Fortnite |
| Units Sold | EA Sports Madden NFL 25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1, 2, 3 |
| Player Engagement | Metaphor: ReFantazio |
| Daily Active Users | Forza Horizon 5 |
| Units Sold | Farming Simulator 25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Return to Grace |
| Player Engagement | MLB The Show 24 |
| Daily Active Users | Grand Theft Auto Online |
| Units Sold | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Rounds |
| Player Engagement | NBA 2K25 |
| Daily Active Users | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle |
| Units Sold | MLB The Show 24 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II |
| Player Engagement | New World: Aeternum |
| Daily Active Users | Marvel Rivals |
| Units Sold | NBA 2K25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance |
| Player Engagement | NHL 25 |
| Daily Active Users | Minecraft |
| Units Sold | NHL 25 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Sonic x Shadow Generations |
| Player Engagement | Path of Exile 2 |
| Daily Active Users | MLB The Show 24 |
| Units Sold | Palworld |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Still Wakes the Deep |
| Player Engagement | Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance |
| Daily Active Users | Palworld |
| Units Sold | Phasmophobia |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria |
| Player Engagement | Skull and Bones |
| Daily Active Users | Roblox |
| Units Sold | Star Wars Outlaws |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | The Outlast Trials |
| Player Engagement | Star Wars Outlaws |
| Daily Active Users | Rocket League |
| Units Sold | The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Unicorn Overlord |
| Player Engagement | Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 |
| Daily Active Users | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl |
| Units Sold | Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 |
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Store Rating | Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 |
| Player Engagement | WWE 2K24 |
| Daily Active Users | Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege |
| Units Sold | WWE 2K24 |
Celebrating the Winners
Developers and publishers will receive their trophies shortly, so be on the lookout to see how they celebrate!
Explore the Award-Winning Games
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.
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