Celebrating Innovation: The Xbox Excellence Awards Showcase a Diverse Range of Talent
By
George Yang
on
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Xbox has announced the Xbox Excellence Awards, which selects its winners based on player interactions with Xbox games over the past year. It features four distinct categories, differing significantly from the traditional ones we’ve seen like “Game of the Year” or “Best RPG.” The four categories include Store Rating, Player Engagement, Daily Active Users, and Items Sold.
For Store Rating, it assesses the highest-rated content across all Microsoft and Xbox stores in 2024, given that the games have at least 500 ratings each. Player Engagement evaluates games with the highest average playtime per person within the initial six weeks of release. Daily Active Users considers games, expansions, and major updates with the most significant single active user count in 2024. This category can also include titles that were not released in 2024.
Finally, Items Sold simply indicates the top-selling content across Microsoft and Xbox stores. The list does not rank them in terms of quantity or numerically like a “top-downloaded games” rundown but rather alphabetically.
Regarding Xbox in the upcoming year, Xbox Game Studios is set to kick off in the first half of 2025. Avowed releases on February 18, followed by South of Midnight on April 8, and then Doom: The Dark Ages on May 15. For third-party support, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ninja Gaiden 4 are scheduled to release on April 24 and Fall 2025, respectively, with both titles launching day-one on Game Pass.
Store Rating
- Balatro
- Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
- Botany Manor
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Little Kitty, Big City
- Lollipop Chainsaw RePop
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- Nobody Wants to Die
- Persona 3 Reload
- Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1, 2, 3
- Return to Grace
- Rounds
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
- Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
- Sonic x Shadow Generations
- Still Wakes the Deep
- The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- The Live for much longer than Trials
- Unicorn Overlord
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Player Engagement
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- F1 Manager 2024
- Farming Simulator 25
- Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
- Home Flipper 2
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- MLB The Show 24
- NBA 2K25
- New World: Aeternum
- NHL 25
- Path of Exile 2
- Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
- Skull and Bones
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
- WWE 2K24
Daily Active Users
- Apex Legends
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Dead Island 2
- Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
- Fallout 4
- Fortnite
- Forza Horizon 5
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Marvel Contest
- Minecraft
- MLB The Show 24
- Palworld
- Roblox
- Rocket League
- Stalker 2 Heart of Chornobyl
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Items Sold
- 7 Days to Die
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- EA Sports Madden NFL 25
- Farming Simulator 25
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
- MLB The Show 24
- NBA 2K25
- NHL 25
- Palworld
- Phasmophobia
- Star Wars Outlaws
- The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- Warhammer 40,000: Space M