TrueAchievements Game of the Year Awards 2023 results
The event featured 11 categories and covered things like the best overall Xbox game, best ID@Xbox game, favorite achievements, and more. Thousands of you got involved, providing your say. Here is how the TrueAchievements Game of the Year Awards 2023 panned out…
TrueAchievements Game of the Year Awards 2023 winner: Starfield
Runner-up: Hogwarts Legacy
Third place: Alan Wake 2
After tallying up the votes, 2023’s big Xbox exclusive Starfield emerged as the winner here, taking the crown by securing 11.7% of 10,813 votes cast. The wildly ambitious space-faring RPG took the Xbox community by storm when it launched in September and has become one of Xbox Game Studios’ top ten most played games, so to see it here in first place shouldn’t be too surprising.
Hogwarts Legacy took the runner-up spot with 5.4% of the vote, and interestingly, the winner of our just-for-fun GOTY tournament bracket, Alan Wake 2, actually ended up coming in third place with 5.3% of the vote.
Best ID@Xbox game of 2023: Sea of Stars
Runner-up: Cocoon
Third place: Baldur’s Gate 3
In what ended up being the closest match-up out of all 11 categories, Sabotage Studio’s excellent RPG Sea of Stars just managed to pip puzzle adventure game Cocoon to first place. Looking at the results, Sea of Stars secured 8.3% of the vote compared to 8.2% for Cocoon, so there really wasn’t much in it here!
Following in third place was Baldur’s Gate 3, with 5.8% of the vote. Considering Baldur’s Gate 3 released in the final month of the year, we’re surprised to see it here at all, especially with many players delaying starting the game due to the recent save issue.
Best Game Pass addition of 2023: Starfield
Runner-up: Lies of P
Third place: Hi-Fi Rush
The game that won the overall Game of the Year category also picked up a win for the best Game Pass addition of 2023. Starfield secured first place with a huge 16.2% of the vote, beating out the excellent soulslike Lies of P (5.4%) in second and Tango Gamework’s shadow drop Hi-Fi Rush (5.3%) in third.
After years of hype and build-up, having the latest Bethesda RPG available day and date in Game Pass for a fraction of the purchase price likely proved attractive to many gamers, so to see it win this category shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.
Best DLC of 2023: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Runner-up: Rally Adventure — Forza Horizon 5
Third place: Separate Ways — Resident Evil 4
CD Projekt Red rounded off its Cyberpunk 2077 redemption arc with Phantom Liberty, and according to the TrueAchievements community, the massive expansion was the best DLC of 2023. A deserved winner, Phantom Liberty brought a new area to explore, a new storyline that takes you on a spy-thriller rollercoaster ride, and so much more — we heaped praise on it in our review.
Forza Horizon 5’s Rally Adventure DLC — which added a new way to play the open-world racing game along with a new map — picked up second place here and was followed by Resident Evil 4’s Separate Ways in third.
Best Xbox achievements of 2023
Achievement most proud of unlocking: Reach for the Stars — Starfield
Achievement most fun to unlock: All His Life — Alan Wake 2
Most original achievement: Spilled Milk — Hogwarts Legacy
Best achievement name: Gotta Catch Some Balls! — Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
2023 brought us a bevy of interesting achievements to unlock, and we asked you to vote for your favorites across a number of different categories. The achievement that TA members were most proud of unlocking was Starfield’s Reach for the Stars, which requires you to reach level 100 in the space RPG. Getting to level 100 in Starfield requires a lot of monotonous grinding, so congrats to you if you did pop this one.
As for the achievement that was the most fun to unlock, Alan Wake 2’s All His Life took the crown here. We Sing is a simple story-related achievement, and talking about what you need to do in the chapter to unlock it would be a massive spoiler, so we won’t be going into detail here. To find out more, you’ll simply need to play the excellent Alan Wake 2; we promise you won’t regret it!
Hogwarts Legacy’s Spilled Milk was voted as the most original achievement of 2023. Spilled Milk is a fun little achievement that simply asks you to take part in some magical cow tipping by using the Flipendo spell ten times to tip over a cow. We’re not too sure why so many of you enjoyed giving the innocent bovine beasts in Hogwarts Legacy such a hard time, but hey, who are we to judge?
Rounding off the achievement categories, we have Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name’s Gotta Catch Some Balls! achievement taking home the gold medal for the best achievement name. This one doesn’t require much other than finding seven golden balls hidden around the world in Gaiden.
Most anticipated game of 2024: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Runner-up: Star Wars Outlaws
Third place: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II won this vote, much to the surprise of no one. At The Game Awards in December, we were treated to a new trailer where the sequel looks fantastic. Taking the silver medal is Ubisoft’s open-world Star Wars game, Star Wars Outlaws, followed by Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with the bronze.
Best TA community event of 2023: 12 Days of Christmas
Runner-up: Genre Bingo
Third place: Trick or Treat
Once again, the 12 Days of Christmas community event takes the win here, and rightly so — it’s a great challenge that offers a lot of variety and gets you thinking hard about achievements. In second and third positions, you voted for two new community events that were introduced in 2023: Genre Bingo and Trick or Treat. Hats off to the Community Events Team for coming up with such wonderful achievement challenges.
Favorite TA Playlist game of 2023: Starfield
Runner-up: High On Life
Third place: GoldenEye 007
While we’re on the topic of community events, you also voted for Starfield as your favorite TA Playlist game of the year. The RPG was followed by Squang Games’ zany shooter High On Life in second and retro FPS GoldenyEye 007 in third. A big thank you goes out to the TA Playlist team for organizing the Playlist each and every month.
What are your thoughts on how the TrueAchievements Game of the Year Awards 2023 shook out? Did you vote for Starfield? Did you participate in any cow tipping? Let us know down in the comments.
