The core of our mission revolves around sharing the joy and community of gaming with everyone around the globe. Today, we’re excited to expand this experience, as more screens than ever can transform into Xbox consoles, lighting up with a fantastic range of games crafted by skilled developers worldwide. These teams bring to life gaming experiences that captivate and invigorate players of every age. To express our gratitude towards these creators and highlight the games that captured players’ hearts in 2024, we’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Xbox Excellence Awards.
With over a thousand games debuting each year on Xbox systems, PCs, and through the cloud, determining the winners could have been as simple as appointing a panel. However, the Excellence Awards focus on your interaction with Xbox over the past year. We’ve honed in on four key categories that reflect players’ passion, involvement, and appreciation for these games. These categories are:
Store Rating: Recognizing the highest-rated content on our platforms from 2024, requiring at least 500 ratings.
Player Engagement: Celebrating games that boasted the highest average playing hours per user within the initial six weeks after release.
Daily Active Users: Honoring games, expansions, or major updates that drew the largest number of single-day active players in 2024. You might spot games not released in 2024 here since they underwent significant updates last year.
Units Sold: Acknowledging the top-selling titles across Xbox and Microsoft stores.
The final list showcases a rich variety of titles from studios that range in size from just a handful to thousands of developers, based in 15 nations worldwide. You can find the titles for each category, alphabetically listed, below.
| Store Rating | Player Engagement | Daily Active Users | Units Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balatro | Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Apex Legends | 7 Days to Die |
| Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden | Dragon’s Dogma 2 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora |
| Botany Manor | EA Sports College Football 25 | Dead Island 2 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 |
| Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth | EA Sports FC 25 | Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred | Dragon Age: The Veilguard |
| Little Kitty, Big City | F1 Manager 2024 | EA Sports College Football 25 | Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero |
| Lollipop Chainsaw RePop | Farming Simulator 25 | EA Sports FC 25 | Dragon’s Dogma 2 |
| Metaphor: ReFantazio | Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail | Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree | EA Sports College Football 25 |
| Nobody Wants to Die | House Flipper 2 | Fallout 4 | EA Sports FC 25 |
| Persona 3 Reload | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth | Fortnite | EA Sports Madden NFL 25 |
| Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1, 2, 3 | Metaphor: ReFantazio | Forza Horizon 5 | Farming Simulator 25 |
| Return to Grace | MLB The Show 24 | Grand Theft Auto Online | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 |
| Rounds | NBA 2K25 | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | MLB The Show 24 |
| Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II | New World: Aeternum | Marvel Rivals | NBA 2K25 |
| Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance | NHL 25 | Minecraft | NHL 25 |
| Sonic x Shadow Generations | Path of Exile 2 | MLB The Show 24 | Palworld |
| Still Wakes the Deep | Phasmophobia | The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria | Star Wars Outlaws |
| Skull and Bones | Roblox | Star Wars Outlaws | The Outlast Trials |
| Unicorn Overlord | Rocket League | The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria | Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege |
| Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 | WWE 2K24 | Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 | WWE 2K24 |
Developers and publishers will soon receive their trophies, so keep an eye out for their celebrations!
Curious about joining the numerous players who propelled these games to award-winning status? Check out our Xbox Store collection of games that received a 2024 Xbox Excellence Award.
