The video game industry in 2024 was still in midst of large-scale layoffs since 2022, including large cuts from Microsoft Gaming, Electronic Arts, and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Nearly 15,000 jobs were cut this year.
Financial performance Best-selling premium games by region The following titles were 2024's top ten best-selling premium games by region (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for Japan, the United States, and Europe. RankJapanUnited StatesEurope1 Super Mario Party Jamboree Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 EA Sports FC 252 Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake EA Sports College Football 25 Call of Duty: Black Ops 63 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Helldivers II EA Sports FC 244 Super Mario Bros. Wonder Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Grand Theft Auto V5 Momotaro Dentetsu World: Chikyuu wa Kibou de Mawatteru! NBA 2K25 Hogwarts Legacy6 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Madden NFL 25 Helldivers II7 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Red Dead Redemption 28 Minecraft Education Edition EA Sports FC 25 The Crew 29 Powerful Pro Baseball 2024-2025 Elden Ring It Takes Two10 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth EA Sports MVP Bundle Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Top-rated games Critically acclaimed titles The following table lists the top-rated games released in 2024 based on Metacritic, which generally considers expansions as separate entities.
+2024 releases scoring 90/100 or higher on Metacritic Title Developer(s) Publisher(s) Release Platform(s) Average score Astro Bot Team Asobi Sony Interactive Entertainment PS5 94 Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree FromSoftware Bandai Namco Entertainment PS4, PS5, WIN, XBO, XSX/S 94 Metaphor: ReFantazio Studio Zero Sega, Atlus PS4, PS5, WIN, XSX/S 94 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Square Enix PS5 92 Caves of Qud Freehold Games Kitfox Games WIN, OSX, LIN 91 Satisfactory Coffee Stain Studios WIN 91 Slay the Princess — The Pristine Cut Black Tabby Games Serenity Forge LIN, OSX, NS, PS4, PS5, WIN, XBO, XSX/S 91 UFO 50 Mossmouth WIN 91 Animal Well Shared Memory Bigmode PS5, NS, WIN, XSX/S 90 Balatro LocalThunk Playstack DROID, iOS, OSX, NS, PS4, PS5, WIN, XBO, XSX/S 90 Tekken 8 Bandai Namco Studios / Arika Bandai Namco Entertainment PS5, WIN, XSX/S 90 The Last of Us Part II Remastered Naughty Dog Sony Interactive Entertainment PS5 90 Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon Type-Moon / HuneX Aniplex PS4, NS 90
Major awards Category / Organization 42nd Golden Joystick Awards The Game Awards 2024 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards 25th Game Developers Choice Awards 21st British Academy Games Awards Game of the Year Black Myth: Wukong Astro Bot Balatro Astro Bot Independent / Debut Indie Another Crab's Treasure, Balatro Balatro Balatro Debut Balatro Mobile Balatro colspan="3" rowspan="2" VR / AR Batman: Arkham Shadow Artistic Achievement Animation Black Myth: Wukong Metaphor: ReFantazio Astro Bot Black Myth: Wukong Astro Bot Art Direction Black Myth: Wukong Neva Audio Music Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Helldivers 2 Astro Bot Helldivers 2 Sound Design Astro Bot Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Helldivers 2 Astro Bot Character or Performance Leading Role Cody Christian as Cloud StrifeFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth Melina Juergens as SenuaSenua's Saga: Hellblade II Indiana JonesIndiana Jones and the Great Circle colspan="2" rowspan="2" Alec Newman as Cameron "Caz" McLearyStill Wakes the Deep Supporting Role Briana White as Aerith GainsboroughFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth Karen Dunbar as FinlayStill Wakes the Deep Game Direction or Design Game Design rowspan="2" Astro Bot Astro Bot Balatro Astro Bot Game Direction Animal Well Narrative Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Metaphor: ReFantazio Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Metaphor: ReFantazio Technical Achievement colspan="2" Astro Bot Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Multiplayer / Online Helldivers 2 colspan="2" Helldivers 2 Action Black Myth: Wukong Helldivers 2 rowspan="2" colspan="3" Adventure Astro Bot Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Family Astro Bot colspan="2" Astro Bot Fighting Tekken 8 rowspan="5" colspan="3" Role-Playing Metaphor: ReFantazio Sports/Racing Sports rowspan="2" EA Sports FC 25 MLB The Show 24 Racing F1 24 Strategy/Simulation Frostpunk 2 Balatro Social Impact Neva colspan="2" Life Is Strange: Double Exposure Tales of Kenzera: Zau Special Award rowspan="2" Game Changer Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Pioneer Award Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Fellowship Amir Satvat Ted Price Don James Lucas Pope Sam Lake Yoko Shimomura
Major events
Date Event January 3 Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson became the first person known to "beat" the NES version of Tetris by reaching its killscreen. January 8–11 Unity Technologies announced layoffs affecting 1,800 jobs. January 8–11 Twitch announced layoffs affecting 500 jobs. January 8–11 Discord announced layoffs affecting 170 jobs. January 22 Riot Games laid off about 530 staff. January 25 Microsoft Gaming laid off 1,900 staff, and the president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, left the company. January 29 Eidos-Montréal laid off about 100 staff as part of the continuing Embracer Group restructuring. February 7 The Walt Disney Company announced a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games. February 13–15 The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2024 D.I.C.E. Summit and the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Koji Kondo was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. February 27 Sony Interactive Entertainment laid off 900 employees across various studios. February 28 Electronic Arts laid off 670 staff. February 28 Toys for Bob split from Activision and became independent. March 8 Sega of America laid off 61 employees across its QA and localization departments. March 8 600 Activision QA workers unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA), creating the largest video game union in North America. March 14 Embracer Group divested Saber Interactive and a portion of its studios to a private firm for $247 million. March 18–22 The 2024 Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco. March 28 Relic Entertainment was sold by Sega to an unspecified investor. 240 employees were laid off across multiple Sega Europe studios. April 9 Nintendo discontinued the online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. April 16 Take-Two Interactive announced plans to reduce its workforce by 5% by December 2024. April 22 Embracer Group announced its intention to transform into three standalone publicly listed entities at Nasdaq Stockholm within the next two years. April 23 Atari SA announced that the Infogrames brand would be revived for acquired and archived titles that do not fit within the Atari brand portfolio. The first game released under the brand was Totally Reliable Delivery Service, acquired by Atari SA from the original publisher tinyBuild. April 27–29 Evo Japan 2024 was held in Tokyo. May 7 Microsoft Gaming closed Arkane Austin and Alpha Dog Games; Roundhouse Studios was merged into Zenimax Online. May 23 Atari SA acquired the Intellivision brand and games catalog. June 7–10 Summer Game Fest 2024 was held at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. June 11 Sumo Group laid off nearly 250 staff. June 12 Take-Two Interactive closed its acquisition of Gearbox Entertainment from Embracer Group for $460 million. June 14 Microsoft closed Tango Gameworks. June 28 Take-Two Interactive closed Intercept Games. July 19–21 The 2024 Evolution Championship Series was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. July 24 The International Olympic Committee approved the formation of the Olympic Esports Games to launch in 2025 in Saudi Arabia. July 24 500 Blizzard Entertainment employees unionized under the Communications Workers of America. July 26 SAG-AFTRA voice actors began striking over failure to reach agreements with multiple studios over the use of AI voice acting in video games. July 30 The IOC discontinued the Mario & Sonic series after 17 years of partnership with Nintendo and Sega which started in 2007. July 31 Bungie laid off 220 staff. August 2 GameStop shuttered Game Informer after 33 years. August 7 Meta closed Ready at Dawn. August 11 Tango Gameworks was revived by Krafton. August 21–25 Gamescom 2024 was held in Cologne, Germany. August 28 After nearly 20 years of original closure, Argonaut Games was relaunched. September 18 Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. September 26–29 Tokyo Game Show 2024 was held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. October 2 The Nintendo Museum opened in Kyoto, Japan. October 18 Keywords Studios acquired Certain Affinity. October 30 Nintendo Music, a music streaming service featuring Nintendo soundtracks, was released. November 6 Take-Two Interactive sold Private Division to an unspecified investor. Roll7 was shut down. December 12 The Game Awards 2024 was held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. December 19 Sony and Kadokawa Corporation, the parent company of FromSoftware, Spike Chunsoft and Acquire, agreed to form a strategic business alliance, with Sony becoming the largest shareholder in Kadokawa.
Notable deaths January 10 – Jennell Jaquays, 67, tabletop and video game designer, with contributions for Dungeons & Dragons and at id Software. February 1 – Carl Weathers, 76, actor, best known for portraying Apollo Creed in the Rocky films and providing voice work in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Mortal Kombat X and The Artful Escape. February 5 – Laralyn McWilliams, 58, game designer, lead designer of Full Spectrum Warrior and creative director of Free Realms. February 6 – Yoshitaka Murayama, 55, game designer, creator of the Suikoden series. February 7 – Mojo Nixon, 66, actor and musician who played Toad in 1993's Super Mario Bros. and appeared in Redneck Rampage. March – BrolyLegs, 35, esports player who competed in Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros.. March 1 – Akira Toriyama, 68, manga creator of Dragon Ball, and character designer for games including the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon. March 10 – Mutsumi Inomata, 63, illustrator, character designer for the Tales series. March 14 - Lee Woo-ri, 24, South Korean actor who voiced Cyno from Genshin Impact and Lord Oyster from Cookie Run: Kingdom. March 27 – Joe Lieberman, 82, U.S. senator who led the congressional investigation of violent video games in 1993. March 29 – Louis Gossett Jr., 87, stage and screen actor who voiced the Vortigaunts in Half-Life 2. May 5 – Bernard Hill, 79, voice actor who voiced Sir Walter Beck in Fable III, and actor best known for portraying King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings sequel film adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King. June 27 – Martin Mull, 80, actor who voiced Vlad Plasmius in Nicktoons Unite!. July 28 – Erica Ash, 46, actress who voiced Nagi Kirishima in Bloody Roar 4. August 10 – Rachael Lillis, 55, actress who voiced Jessie, Misty, and Jigglypuff in Pokémon. August 20 – Atsuko Tanaka, 61, actress who voiced Bayonetta in the Bayonetta series and Super Smash Bros. and Lara Croft in Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider III, and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. August 30 – Andrew C. Greenberg, 67, co-creator of the Wizardry series. September 9 – James Earl Jones, 93, voice actor in Under a Killing Moon, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and Simba's Mighty Adventure. September 29 – Nobuyo Ōyama, 90, actress who voiced the titular character in the Doraemon games and Monokuma in Danganronpa. November 6 – Tony Todd, 69, actor who voiced Venom in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Locus from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. December 15 – Masayuki Kato, 78, founder of Nihon Falcom. December 22 – Gordon Mah Ung, 58, tech and video games journalist for Maximum PC and PC World. December 27 – Olivia Hussey, 73, actress from various Star Wars games circa 1998–2011. December 28 – Martyn Brown, 57, co-founder of Team17.
Hardware releases