Xbox Excellence Awards Take A Different Approach To Celebrate Developers

Xbox has introduced the Xbox Excellence Awards, which picks its winners based on how players engaged with Xbox games over the past year. It has four different categories, and they're much different than the typical ones we've seen like "Game of the Year" or "Best RPG." The four categories are Store Rating, Player Engagement, Daily Active Users, and Units Sold.
For Store Rating, it measures the highest-rated content across all of Microsoft and Xbox's stores in 2024, provided the games have a minimum of 500 ratings each. Player Engagement measures games with he highest average hours per player within the first six weeks of release. Daily Active Users measures games, expansions, and major updates with the highest single active user count in 2024. This particular category can also include games that weren't released in 2024.
Lastly, Units Sold simply refers to the top-selling content across Microsoft and Xbox stores. The list also doesn't order them in terms of quantity or numerically like a "top-downloaded games" list, but rather alphabetically.
As for Xbox this upcoming year, Xbox Games Studios is starting off strong during the first half of 2025. Avowed launches on February 18, followed by South of Midnight on April 8, and then Doom: The Dark Ages on May 15. As for third-party support, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ninja Gaiden 4 are set to release on April 24 and in Fall 2025, respectively, with both games 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 Mora
The Outlast 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
House 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 Rivals
Minecraft
MLB The Show 24
Palworld
Roblox
Rocket League
Stalker 2 Heart of Chornobyl
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units 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 Marine 2
WWE 2K24

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