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 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.

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.