2016 was an absolutely wild year for video games.
After years in “Development Hell,” Doom (2016), Final Fantasy XV, and The Last Guardian were all finally finished and released. Even more surprising, Nintendo temporarily bowed out of the market as they put the Wii U on hiatus and prepared to move ahead with their mysterious NX console (which we now know as the Switch). And Blizzard jumped back into original console development in a big way with the launch of Overwatch.
As the recipient of three major awards (and more than a dozen awards from individual publications), Overwatch was head and shoulders above the rest of the field in the overall “Game of the Year” discussion last year, but a number of other games took home at least one prize in 2016.
You can see more of last year’s most-acclaimed titles, along with all of their “Game of the Year” accolades, after the break.
Overwatch
★ DICE Awards
★ The Game Awards
★ GDC Awards
★ Ars Technica
★ Crave Online
★ Den of Geek
★ Destructoid
★ EGM
★ The Escapist
★ Eurogamer
★ Game Informer
★ Game Rant
★ Gamepur
★ GameRevolution
★ GamesBeat
★ GameSpot
★ GamesTM (Issue #181)
★ IGN
★ Mashable
★ The Mercury News
★ Tom’s Guide
★ USgamer
★ Wired
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
★ BAFTA Games Awards
★ SXSW Gaming Awards
★ BGR
★ Empire
★ Gaming Bolt
★ Good Game
★ The Guardian
★ The Independent
★ Metacritic
★ Push Square (Best PlayStation Games)
★ Slant Magazine
★ Toronto Sun
★ Twinfinite
★ Eurogamer
★ GamesMaster (Christmas 2016 Issue)
★ IGN
★ Metacritic
★ N4G
★ Stuff UK
Battlefield 1
★ Windows Central (Best Xbox Games)
Dark Souls III
★ GamesMaster (Christmas 2016 Issue)
★ Thrillist
Devil Daggers
★ Rock Paper Shotgun (Best PC Games)
Doom
Final Fantasy XV
Hitman
Inside
★ Entertainment Weekly
★ Vulture
The Last Guardian
★ Edge (Issue #302)
★ The Huffington Post Canada
★ The New Yorker
★ New Zealand Herald
Owlboy
Pokemon Sun/Moon
★ Nintendo Life (Best Games on Nintendo Hardware)
★ Nintendo Life (Best Games on Nintendo Hardware)
Thumper
Titanfall 2
★ Forbes
★ Games Radar
★ Golden Joystick Awards
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood & Wine
The Witness
★ Time
XCOM 2
★ Digital Spy (Best PC Games)
Unranked Lists
★ CNET
★ Engadget
★ Gamasutra
★ Kotaku (Heather Alexandra, Mike Fahey, Kirk Hamilton, Luke Plunkett, Jason Schreier)
★ PC Gamer (Best PC Games)
★ PC World (Best PC Games)
★ PCGamesN (Best PC Games)
★ Touch Arcade (Best Mobile Games)
★ USA Today
★ The Verge
★ The Washington Post
And that’s not all. There were plenty of other great games from 2016 that might not have earned “Game of the Year” honors, but did appear further down at least one list…
- ★ Bound (#20 at Crave Online)
- ★ Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (#9 at GamesBeat)
- ★ Civilization VI (#7 at The Mercury News)
- ★ Darkest Dungeon (#10 at GamesBeat)
- ★ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (#7 at Thrillist)
- ★ Dishonored 2 (#2 at Entertainment Weekly)
- ★ Dragon Quest Builders (“Game of the Year” Nominee at USgamer)
- ★ Fire Emblem Fates (#15 at Empire)
- ★ Firewatch (#8 at Game Rant)
- ★ Forza Horizon 3 (“Best Racing Game” at Game Informer)
- ★ Gears of War 4 (#15 at EGM)
- ★ Hyper Light Drifter (#11 at Paste Magazine)
- ★ No Man’s Sky (#9 at The New Yorker)
- ★ Overcooked (#4 at Den of Geek)
- ★ Pokemon Go (#2 at The Guardian)
- ★ Rez Infinite (#7 at Entertainment Weekly)
- ★ Quantum Break (#23 at Slant Magazine)
- ★ Severed (#17 at Games Radar)
- ★ Stardew Valley (#7 at GameRevolution)
- ★ Superhot (#2 at Ars Technica)
- ★ Watch Dogs 2 (#3 at Mashable)
This obviously isn’t every “Game of the Year” list from 2016, but I think it is a fairly representative sample, though more links will be added as I find them.