PC Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2024

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From major releases to the games that perfectly captured their niche, these were the best games of the year.

Game of the Year
(Image credit: Future)

Welcome to PC Gamer's annual Game of the Year awards. It's been an interesting year for PC gaming—a handful of major releases, but many more incredible games that dedicated themselves to satisfying a specific niche. We'll be celebrating that variety through the rest of the month as we run through the best games of 2024, culminating in the reveal of our official Game of the Year on December 30.

To create the list, every member of PC Gamer's 30+ editorial team could nominate up to six games released in 2024. These nominations became our shortlist. From there, we gather on a big global call to talk through our picks and—after some heated discussion and a couple of tiebreaker votes—select 14 games to receive awards, including our overall Game of the Year. Once the games are chosen, we assign an award category based on what we think that game does best. The awards are tailored specifically to the game—that's why there's a slightly different selection of award names each year.

Alongside the awards proper, each member of the team has also picked out a personal favourite of the year—giving some love to a game that didn't make the main list. We'll be updating the list with new awards and new personal picks each day throughout the rest of the month.

The Awards

Best Ongoing Game: Stardew Valley
Creative Achievement: UFO 50
Best Survival: Pacific Drive
Best Tactics: Tactical Breach Wizards
Best Roguelike: Caves of Qud
Best Comedy: Thank Goodness You're Here!
Best FPS: STRAFTAT
Spirit of the PC: Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Best City Builder: Manor Lords
Best Sandbox: Satisfactory
Best RPG: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Best Expansion: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Best Multiplayer: Helldivers 2
Game of the Year: Balatro

Personal Picks

Chris Livingston: The Rise of the Golden Idol
Fraser Brown: Sins of a Solar Empire 2
Jacob Ridley: Frostpunk 2
Robin Valentine: Shogun Showdown
Jody Macgregor: Silent Hill 2
Jess Klinghorn: 1000xResist
Joshua Wolens: Halls of Torment
Morgan Park: Abiotic Factor
Phil Savage: Against the Storm
Harvey Randall: Hades 2
Sean Martin: Black Myth: Wukong
Shaun Prescott: Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance
Wes Fenlon: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Mollie Taylor: Webfishing
Rich Stanton: DeathSprint 66
Ted Litchfield: Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Lauren Morton: Fields of Mistra
Andy Chalk: Morels: The Hunt 2
Kara Phillips: The Outlast Trials
Elie Gould: Ultros
Lincoln Carpenter: Dragon's Dogma 2

Past Awards

Game of the Year Awards 2023
Game of the Year Awards 2022
Game of the Year Awards 2021
Game of the Year Awards 2020
Game of the Year Awards 2019
Game of the Year Awards 2018
Game of the Year Awards 2017
Game of the Year Awards 2016
Game of the Year Awards 2015
Game of the Year Awards 2014
Game of the Year Awards 2013

Phil Savage
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

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