The best Xbox games of 2024 according to Metacritic

We’re four years into the current Xbox Series X|S generation, and by 2024 it was mostly business as usual for Microsoft’s console brand. While the biggest news this year related to Xbox was a new focus on bringing more of its first-party games to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Xbox also saw an evolution of its Game Pass subscription service and an ability for Ultimate tier users to stream select games they own. Beyond a marketing push designed to remind people that they don’t technically need the console to play Xbox games, 2024 was shaping up to be a year of diversification for Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem.

What about the games then? This was a pretty strong year overall, as the Xbox library was bolstered with first-party games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Third-party games like Neon White and Final Fantasy 14 only added to the appeal of sitting down for a night of gaming on an Xbox console, and with Game Pass featuring several Day-1 releases, you’d find yourself spoiled for choice on what you could download and play, especially when one of those options was Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

GameSpot sister Metacritic has crunched the numbers on the best-reviewed Xbox games of the year — as of December 5 — and if you’re interested, you can check them all out in the list below. There were a few obvious winners here, as well as several surprises that you can read about. Also, be sure to check out our running lists of the best Xbox Series X|S games and the best Xbox Game Pass games to play right now.

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