Poll: Was 2023 One of the Best Ever Years for New Game Releases?

Very few games spoke to me personally, but this was an undeniably better-than-average year. I think fans of every type of game and genre had at least one big thing to latch on to in 2023.

Every new year after 2009 was better than the one before. So yes, obviously 2023 has been the best year yet. Until 2024 when 2024 will be the best. 2025 will be the best then etc

It was a really good year (even if I failed to get to most of the games 😅)
With that being said I wouldn't call it my personal favourite year for gaming.
2010 and 2017 are my favourites, and 2019, 2007 and 2011 was pretty damn good as well.

Best year yet 😮‍💨

Not really. The only new game on that list is Hogwarts, and that got shunned by the gaming media because of activist intolerance that had nothing to do with the game and the hard work the devs put in making such a fantastic recreation of Hogwarts.

I think it was a very dissapointing year for new games as publishers get more and more risk averse, or worse get swallowed up by Microsoft and made to put out games that fail to live up to the promises.

Wo Long was my favourite new game of the year and isn't even on the list.

Too many remakes and cookie cutter sequels for last year to be considered truly great, but your mileage may vary

2017 for the Switch's first year takes it for me. Two of the all time greats in Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey plus so many other brilliant titles like Hollow Knight, Cuphead Resi VII, Horizon, Nier Automata, Prey etc etc.

2017 is a very close 2nd but for me 2023 was the best ever. Not every game spoke to me but the sheer amount of titles that I would have played in any other year but didnt due to too many other releases has never happened before.

EDIT
For example: I skipped One Piece Odessy, Lies of P, Goodbye Volcano High, Seasons and the MH Rise Sunbreak expansion all because I was too busy just trying to finish other games.

@Ooccoo_Jr 2017 was absolutely better than 2023, in my opinion. Persona 5, Odyssey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Cuphead, Resi 7, Horizon, Uncharted The Lost Legacy, BotW, etc. Absolutely insane year.

@RBMango Dont forget Gravity Rush 2 😉

As primarily a JRPG player it was on OK year with FF16, Star Ocean Second Story R and Fate Samurai/Remnant being the only standouts, yes I understand that games like Baldurs Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Spider Man 2 and some horror survival remakes took the headlines but they aren't for me even though they might be amazing games.

Next year though is looking incredible for JRPGs with 5 potential game of the year contenders releasing in the first 3 months. I think 2024 will be a better gaming year than 2023 and hopefully Sony have something cooking we don't know about.

Really a very good year, even if the 2024's gonna be better as a Jrpg lover

@RBMango Not to argue, just to share my personal thought process: 2017 was absolutely amazing. How I decided to put 2023 slightly above it was but trying to "answer" the notable 2017 releases with 1 or 2 2023 counterparts. Like BotW vs ToTK. Or Persona 5 vs P5 Tactica + BG3. Or HZD vs The Burning Shores Dlc + Spiderman 2. Or Resi 7 vs Resi 4 Remake ect.

@UltimateOtaku91 Did you play Octopath Traveler 2 though?

I don’t know where it would rank all time, but this year was absolutely outstanding. So many great games in so many genres on PS5, Xbox and Nintendo. I played soooooo many games this year, and it was rare to find one that wasn’t a banger.

Edited to say: Even the indie scene was fire. For example-Dredge was amazing this year.

@3Above I've played it but haven't completed it, I've put around 8 hours into it same with Sea of Stars.

Best year I can remember, my memory is not so good though. If you own a switch, PS5 and Xbox/PC you had quite the pick of top quality games to choose from. It was a great year for gaming.

@UltimateOtaku91 I forgot about Sea of Stars!

Quality over quantity. This year was filled with great games all around but nothing revolutionary except baldur's gate 3. I can name quite a few years better than this so no it's absolutely not one of the best for me.

Yes, it’s one of the best ever but probably won’t be fully recognised by the masses until about 2040 as people just absolutely love being miserable AF right now.

It definitely was great but nothing will beat 2017 for me with games like BotW, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Tales of Berseria, Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and many more

2020 was better imo. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us 2, Persona 5 Royal, Like a Dragon / Yakuza 7 (albeit only on PS4), Resident Evil 3 remake, Streets of Rage 4, Fall Guys (given the period we were in), Tony Hawks 1 and 2 remake, 13 Sentinels, Astros Playroom, Demons Souls, Miles Morales, PS5 release - to name but a few.

2023 has been very good but a tad overated in my opinion

Really great year, but nothing will top 2017.
Zelda, Horizon & Nier Automata all in the space of a week & then you had arguably the greatest JRPG ever with Persona 5 in April.

Perhaps TOO good! So many amazing games I have yet to play… and they’re just going to keep on coming! 😵‍💫

Amazing year! No year has had quite the same impact for me personally as 2004 but this is an undeniably exciting time for gamers.

Yeah easily up there. I think looking back this will be seen as one of the best ever years in gaming and the peak of the gen. The fact Baldur's Gate 3, Zelda TotK, Street Fighter 6, Mario Wonder and Alan Wake 2 all released in the same year is wild as all 5 rank as 5 of the best games ever made.

@riceNpea Hogwarts is an above average open world carried by the IP, it wasn't really shunned outside of a small handful of sites and the scores it got were pretty on point?

Also lack of new games? Lies of P? Sea of Stars? Robocop? Avatar? Trepang2? Cocoon? Starfield? HiFi Rush? Forspoken? Dredge? Dave the Diver? Under the Waves?

@Anke The two games dominating GOTY lists and awards are neither remakes or horror.

@Lorcan I highlighted it because it's a new game, and out of the new games released this year its amongst the best. All the other games on the list are sequels.

@DennisReynolds AA games I grant you have been good this year. New AAA games not so much. Very few of a great standard. Starfield is probably the most dissapointing considering what it promised.

It was one of the best year for video games.a lot of masterpieces and amazing games came out in 2023.word up son

With games like.

Dragons Dogma 2, FF7 ReBirth, Persona 3 Reloaded, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Metaphor Re Fantazio, Trails of Cold Steel 3&4 Remasters, Unicorn Overload, Rise of the Ronin, Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Blue Protocol, Neptunia Game Maker and Black Myth Wukong.

This year is going to be even better than the last.

@riceNpea I'm with you on the hogwarts front. Brilliant game and didn't deserve the vitriol thrown at it. Lies of p and lords of the fallen were stunning and I purchased immortals of aveum dirt cheap and even though I've only played through the intro and tutorial I'm quite impressed with the game. Just finished remnant 2 and I have wo long fallen dynasty to plough through. Last year was pretty good for gamers and I'm hoping this one's better.

No. lack of original ips. remasters and sequels aren’t enough . multiplayer gaming is also in a drought of new ip

It's one of the greats, but not the greatest simply because a lot of the best AAAs were sequels and don't feel like they'll forever alter how games are made.

If this kicks off a lot of new trends in future years then its true greatest contention.

For my tastes and the games that I like to play, it wasn't special at all. Two solid games that enjoyed, but won't ever go back to - BG3 and ToTK, and that's about it.

For me, over the last 20 years, it would rank in the bottom five.

I wish gaming news sites did the work for us.

Did more 2023 games review score higher on average than previous years? (Were the games just better across a similar # of titles?)

Did we see significantly more games that also were quality games this year? (Eg was it a boom year?)

Was it the best year for certain platforms? (Eg maybe this was the best Nintendo year since 2017)

If we compare the top games between years which year would win?

My instinct is that yes absolutely 2023 was a banger. Best ever tho? Err… you specify the criteria for that and we can discuss.

@ChrisDeku the past always seems shinier. This was an amazing year in gaming!

It was a pretty good year, but it's still a way behind 1984, that saw the release of classic games such as Mission Impossible, Ghostbusters and Summer Games, or 1987, that saw IK+, California Games, Buggy Boy and Maniac Mansion! But yeah, it was a good year...

I think 2024 will blow 2023 out of the water but that’s just me. It was a pretty great year though!

It was excellent. From early on, I had something incredible to play while having something else to look forward to: Dead Space - Metroid Prime Remastered - Hogwarts Legacy - RE4 Remake - Jedi: Survivor - Tears of the Kingdom - Final Fantasy 16 - Starfield - Assassin's Creed Mirage - Super Mario Wonder - Spider-Man 2 - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Can't believe I went through all of those and completed most of them (still working through Phantom Liberty and while I completed the final boss battle early and most shrines in Tears of the Kingdom, I'm saving it for later). Really enjoyed all the games I mentioned.

Edit: Forgot the DLC for Horizon Forbidden West. Not the best, but also enjoyed it.

in the year mass effect 2 was released it was better.

@CWill97

i doubt, or...
nintendo release a new console with metroid 4

It was a great year and up there with the best, my favourite genre is probably FPS so not that many of those this year which is good as it feels we got over saturated with shooters for a while back there. Robocop was my favourite shooter of 2023.
This year had a real good balance of releases and got me into some IP's I haven't really touched before like AC6 and Assassins Creed!
Brilliant year ✨✨🎉🎉🎇🎇

Personally I'd vote for 2007; Uncharted Drake's Fortune and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PS3? Yet to be bettered...

I will definitely say this year was the best in gaming. Mostly because I have no idea what other year would offer the same variety and quality compared to this year.

But also, it is probably the year with most rotten business models thriving and addicted people hooked on gaming chronic.

We have game passes, skins, micro DLC, loot crates, "gacha" (loot crates?), and I am sure I am forgetting something. How many people are spending extra money I their games chasing something? 🤑

@Anke you are not alone!

This is probably a hot take but I don't think 2023 was anything exceptional. There was a high volume of above average games for sure, but of those games very few were truly mind blowing, or innovative in any meaningful way. A lot of these games were either sequels or remakes or remakes of sequels, or in the case of Zelda: a large expansion that's being sold as a $70 sequel.

Now when you compare 2023 to 2022 I think that's where you get a lot of the "best year in gaming" takes from. Just because 2022 was such an abnormally bad year in video games, one of the worst probably ever. So by comparison a slightly above average year like 2023 looks like an absolute godsend

i think many of the readers on here are too young to know what a good year in gaming used to look like. 2001 was a killer year for gaming and puts 2023 to shame.
some standouts:

Final Fantasy X
Ico
Silent Hill 2
Grand Theft Auto III
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Devil May Cry
SSX Tricky
Advance Wars
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Golden Sun
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
Max Payne
Halo: Combat Evolved
Shenmue II
Pikmin
Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

i mean, why are we doing even having this conversation? this narrative screams recency bias.

Well, 2008 had GTA IV, so....

For me no. Wanted Dead, Clive n Wrench, Disgaea 7 (demo so far will get the full game later), Pikmin 4 (was disappointed in it), Pikmin 1 & 2 is fine, no motion but they are still more fun. Bayonetta Origins (is pretty good so far, its different but also fixed the issues I had with Bayonetta 3 besides being different it has similarities more refined and better executed I think).

Playing 2022 Square Enix games (Diofield, Valkyrie Elysium, Tactics Ogre 2 remake) and older games on PS4 or older consoles I didn't get around to last year was fine.

I think prior years AAA, AA and Indie/closer teams prior years were better of impact, game design, story telling and more.

But for 2023 only games I didn't care for the big ones yet again, they just don't appeal to me personally but the ones I was were fine but not great.

I enjoyed the retro games on older consoles more or any I researched, then any of the 2023 PS4 games I played this year (not interested in current gen so third parties only for me on PS4/Xbox One and only bought OG/360 for Xbox One besides older years Xbox One games in 2023 nothing current).

@Fight_Teza_Fight how about 2018? God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 (already proved my point just with these two), Spider-Man, Detroit: Become Human, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, AC: Odyssey (I thought it was really good, albeit bloated).

@Sacrosanctus was looking through the comments just now for 2018. For me - Rdr2, God of war and spiderman make this one of the best years. Can't believe this year wasn't mentioned more. Not even an honourable mention...

I think this year was probably the best in at least the last 2 decades for variety gamers, anyone saying otherwise is just misery chasing tbh.

Adventure:

High-Fi Rush
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story
Bramble: The Mountain King
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

Shooter:

Atomic Heart
Phantom Liberty
Everspace 2
System Shock
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun
Remnant II
The Finals
Payday 3

Horror:

Resident Evil 4
Dead Space
Sons of the Forest
Lethal Company
Amnesia: The Bunker
Layers of Fear
Alan Wake 2

RPG:

Starfield
Diablo IV
Hogwarts Legacy
Octopath Traveller 2
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Dead Island 2
Lies of P
Baldur's Gate 3
Assassin's Creed Mirage

Roguelike/Lite:

Hammerwatch 2
RoboQuest
Before The Storm

TBS / RTS:

Sea of Stars
Wartales
Minecraft Legends
Honkai: Star Rail
Age of Wonders 4
Darkest Dungeon 2
For the King 2
Dungeons 4

Management / Simulation:

Dredge
Kerbal Space Program 2
Meet Your Maker
Cities: Skylines II

Fighting:

Street Fighter 6
Mortal Kombat 1

Platformer:

Convergence: A League of Legends Story
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Blasphemous 2
Party Animals

Racing:

Forza Motorsport
The Crew: Motorfest

@Anke I was thinking I am alone...and browsing through the comments to see a matching soul.ø! Thanks, you made my day!

I don’t know about best ever and whatnot, but I had a lot of fun as always playing games. I played some great games and some terrible duds.
I certainly look with a bit of skepticism at people who say it was a terrible year and there are no good games. Far from me to judge other people experience but, I don’t know, maybe, they are not into games that much (anymore?). There are other hobbies out there to enjoy. I for instance used to love to watch movies, I watched hundreds. Over a thousand, I’m pretty sure. But nowadays most movies just bore me and I don’t feel the drive to watch them anymore. Happens sometimes, you just gotta realize it and move on. You’ll be happier.

Cheers and happy gaming.