Unveiling 2024’s Must-Play Xbox Games: Metacritic’s Top Picks!

We are now four years into the ongoing Xbox Series X|S era, and throughout 2024, it was mostly business as usual for Microsoft’s console brand. Although the significant news for Xbox this year was the renewed emphasis on delivering several of its first-party titles to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Microsoft also experienced growth with its Game Pass subscription service and provided an option for Ultimate tier users to stream certain games they own. In addition to a marketing campaign aiming to remind users that they technically don’t require the console to enjoy Xbox games, 2024 turned out to be a year of diversification for Microsoft’s gaming landscape.

What about the games? This year was quite solid overall, as the Xbox library was enhanced with first-party titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Third-party titles like Neon White and Final Fantasy 14 also contributed to the enjoyment of spending an evening gaming on an Xbox console, and with Game Pass delivering numerous day-one releases, players found themselves with an abundance of choices for what to download and play, particularly with one of those options being Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

GameSpot’s partner, Metacritic, has analyzed the data on the best-reviewed Xbox games of the year—as of December 5—and if you’re curious, you can view all of them in the list below. There were several clear winners among them, alongside a few unexpected entries worth reading about. Don’t forget to check out our continuously updated lists of the best Xbox Series X|S games and top Xbox Game Pass games to play at this moment.

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