From iconic names like Indiana Jones and Final Fantasy to indie sensations like Balatro and Animal Well, 2024 has given gamers a variety of incredible experiences. IGN is in the process of choosing our Game of the Year, but now’s your chance to make your voice heard in the IGN People’s Choice Tournament.
Together with our partners at Truth, we selected 64 of the year’s best titles to place in a bracket and randomly group them. They will face off, the winner will advance to the next round and the loser will be eliminated. As the rounds progress, the competition will become tougher, until only one title stands as the fan-voted Game of the Year. If you’re familiar with how March Madness brackets work, it’s the same idea.
Tournament schedule and how to vote
Voting will be held IGN’s Instagram Starting today, December 18. We’ll post the matchups on our Instagram Stories around 3 pm ET / 2 pm CT / 12 pm PT, and you’ll have 24 hours to vote. 32 winners will advance to the next round, where the process will repeat. Here are the dates when each round will be posted (same time as listed above), so be sure to check back on our Instagram Stories to continue voting for your favorite games:
- Round 1: 18 December
- Round 2: December 20
- Round 3: 23 December
- Quarter Finals: December 27
- Semi-Finals: 30 December
- Final: 31 December
Which games are grouped together?
As we mentioned earlier, the bracket placement of our selected 64 games is randomized. They were divided into four groups like the zones of March Madness. Group 1 is led by some heavy hitters: Helldivers 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. But they have to go up against breakout indie Animal Well. Plus, three popular sports games: Madden NFL 25, College Football 25 and MLB The Show 24. And you can’t look past the beautiful visuals of Unicorn Overlord and Infinity Nikki.
Group 2 is led by the excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, but it will face stiff competition from a trio of RPGs — the likes of Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dragon Age: The Velgard and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. There are also Nintendo remasters and remakes, including Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. And we can’t leave out the technical marvel Senua’a Sage: Hellblade II, or another standout indie in Lorelai and Laser Eyes.
Group 3 concluded with three games sweeping the awards season: Astro Bot, Metaphor: Refantazio and Black Myth: Wukong. They are joined by an eclectic group of contestants. Star Wars Outlaws and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (which will face off against each other in Round 1) have entries from the massive franchise. Other long-running series games include Tekken 8 and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. EA Sports FC 25 and NBA 2K25 feature the latest editions of the sports franchise. But some notable new IPs, including Stellar Blade and Slitterhead.
Rounding things off, Group 4 is filled with some big names. First, there’s indie darling Balatro, which has also done very well for itself this awards season But it had to go through two massive RPG sequels to Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Dragon’s Dogma 2, as well as a popular RPG remake in Persona 3 Reload. And they’ll be up against several family-friendly opponents in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Lego Horizon Adventures, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and The Plucky Square. Not to mention the oft-overlooked Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and the surprise hit Enshrouded.
As you can see, this year is going to be a hotly contested race. So make sure you head over to Instagram to vote for each matchup and help decide which games will advance and which will be sent packing. This will make all the fans ready for a big reveal of the game of the year Happy voting!
