The Best PlayStation Game of 2024

ign.com:

With the shadow of Concord’s demise hanging over the latter part of the year, it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking 2024 was a rough time for PlayStation. But the past twelve months have been really solid for Team Sony, with a selection of games that really highlight the console’s strength in multiple areas, be that gargantuan RPGs, slick cinematic action, or spine-chilling horror.

It’s a good job there was such a great spread, too, as 2024 marks the return of our platform awards after being absent for the past few years. We’ve aimed to capture what made each console feel unique this year, and so naturally that means exclusives or games that feel distinctly “at home” on a specific platform. That was pretty easy for PlayStation thanks to a long list of PS5 exclusives that treated us to the likes of Astro Bot’s creative platforming challenges, Black Myth: Wukong’s ferocious boss battles, Helldivers 2’s chaotic co-op missions, and much more besides.

But only one can be crowned the best PlayStation game of 2024. What did the IGN team judge to be the most worthy? Let’s take a look at the results…

2024 has provided a solid range of experiences on PlayStation, but it’s notably been a pretty good year for action games. Two have stood out in particular: Stellar Blade and Black Myth: Wukong. While neither quite picked up enough votes to climb onto the podium, they came in close behind our finalists.

Stellar Blade made a splash earlier this year thanks to its excellent combat system, which blends a little Dark Souls (parries, healing flasks, and bonfire-like checkpoints) with the stylish flare of Platinum hits like Bayonetta. It does so while also utilising all of the PS5’s power, ensuring that it looks stunning regardless of if you're fighting scrap robots in the desert or duelling monsters in a lab.

Just a few months later we got Black Myth: Wukong, another game that blended some of the sensibilities of FromSoftware with more traditional character action staples.