Review
Alan Wake 2 is a psychological thriller of the highest order
by Philipp Rüegg
Your votes are in! These are the best games of 2023
27/12/2023
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
Baldur’s Gate 3 was your top pick for this year. The role-playing game had nearly 500 mentions in our survey. The race for second place, on the other hand, was very close.
At the end of each year, my colleague Phil compiles a list of games for you to vote on (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Every year, I have the honour of tallying up the votes and announcing our Community’s Game of the Year. This year, I decided to switch things up.
As 2023 was such a great year for games, I enabled multiple answers for the very first time. You sure made good use of the option, too. In total, nearly 1,600 gamers cast their vote(s); of them, 43 per cent were undecided and voted for several games. And those who cast multiple votes didn’t hold back, voting on 3.5 games on average.
But enough numbers and into the fray!
Top 10 games of the year
The freedom and storytelling in the role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 seem to have appealed to you – the smash hit is in first place by a longshot. This matches The Game Awards, where BG3 was also voted Game of the Year. The rest of the votes were close. In second place is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, coming in a few votes ahead of Hogwarts Legacy. In fourth place is Phantom Liberty, a Cyberpunk 2077 expansion which has been widely praised for its depth and great story. Nintendo was represented twice in the top 10, with the 2D surprise Super Mario Bros. Wonder particularly appealing to you (sixth place) in addition to Zelda.
Fifth and tenth place go to titles exclusive to Sony and Microsoft consoles, namely, Spider-Man 2 and Starfield. Somewhat surprisingly, Alan Wake 2 came in ninth place behind Jedi Survivor and Diablo IV. It seems Remedy’s mystery action game didn’t appeal only to Phil. Both Jedi Survivor and the new Diablo were criticised at times, but the Community didn’t seem fazed by the poor performance in the Star Wars title or strange business practices surrounding Diablo.
The winner, Baldur’s Gate 3, is unfortunately not (yet) available on a disc, so I’ve linked the second and third place here. A special edition with various extras will be released next year. We hope to distribute it.
Top 10 single votes
If we only look at the games that didn’t receive multiple votes, a slightly different picture emerges. The first five places remain identical. However, Starfield jumps from tenth to seventh place. Super Mario, meanwhile, plummets to ninth place. In other words, Starfield seems to have a dedicated fan base, while the new Mario game enjoyed clicks as a kind of supplement.
How are the votes distributed?
Things get interesting when we look at which game received the most single votes. I only looked at the games that received at least 50 votes and calculated the percentage of single votes. Like this, Call of Duty, which was always in the top ranks in previous years, also makes it into the top three. This isn’t surprising, as according to various sources, one million PlayStations are used exclusively to play Call of Duty. Alongside CoD, the city-building simulator Cities: Skyline 2 and the Bloodborne-inspired Lies of P made it into the top 10.
Sharing is caring? No game was left empty-handed
The fact that 2023 was a top year for games is also reflected in your votes. Not a single one of the 76 games suggested by Phil was left voteless. Tied for last place are baseball simulator MLB The Show and puzzle game Humanity with one vote each – all thanks to kindhearted user G Spesem, who was the only one to give each game a vote.
Even without trolls, your votes are distributed democratically. More than a third of votes were for games outside the top 10, indicating a high diversity of good titles.
In case you were wondering, I also voted for Baldur’s Gate 3. Is your favourite game represented in the list? Let me know in the comments!
Header image: Collage by Dyan Shirai
Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.