Game of the Year 2024 – Best Multiplayer Game
by Jim Hargreaves · tsaIf 2024 has shown us anything, it’s that the multiplayer live service boom is well and truly over. Despite being objectively fun to play and super polished, games such as Suicide Squad, XDefiant, and Concord failed to make a splash – the latter being dead on arrival in one of the biggest gaming flops ever. It casts a grim shadow over the wider multiplayer genre, proving that there’s really only room for a handful of majorly successful online games at one time.
That’s not to say there weren’t any great multiplayer games in 2024, though. While legions of gamers are still glued to Fortnite, Warzone, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends, there have been some hot new contenders, one of them arriving at the start of the year…
Playing big, bombastic shooters with friends is always more fun, but Helldivers 2 is the kind of game to remind you that these can also be silly and just funny as well. It takes the satire and violence of Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, and adds in a bit of player-led workplace comedy. Sure, it’s fun to call in a huge orbital barrage or minefield on a bug’s nest, but it’s funny to do that five seconds after your team has just rushed in and “forget” to call it out in time.
Arrowhead has always made fun and silly co-op games where the fire is always friendly, and explosions are always excessive, but the jump from the top-down action of the original to a third person view with more realistic graphics just managed to capture the attention of gamers at large. Add to that an engaging meta layer to the game, actively engaging with the community through highs and lows of balance and gameplay changes, and the recent reveal of a new enemy faction, and this is easily the best multiplayer game of the year.
– Stefan L
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – Runner-up
Through the last generation, it’s felt as though couldn’t so much as blink without a new Warhammer 40,000 game being announced, resulting in a never-ending slew of PC and mobile titles. With 40K having witnessed a huge spike in popularity over the past few years, Space Marine 2 arrived at the perfect time, with Boltgun and Chainsword in-hand.
What made the sequel such a strong offering was its pairing of a solid campaign with a whole suite of multiplayer options, allowing friends to play through the story together, duke it out in PvP, or run a gauntlet of missions designed for co-op play. There’s a lot of shared DNA with Saber Interactive’s brilliant World War Z video game, enhanced with dynamic melee combat and a heavily expanded arsenal of weaponry plucked from the 41st millennium.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Runner-up
Last year’s Call of Duty wasn’t the flawless end to Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare trilogy fans had hoped for: it was by no means poor but felt more like a DLC expansion as opposed to a full-blown sequel. Going into 2025, it seemed as though the next Call of Duty would be even further entrenched in a lack of innovation and growing player fatigue. We were wrong to doubt Treyarch.
Black Ops 6 is the full package: the best CoD campaign in many years, rewardingly layered Zombies co-op, and punchy, tactical online play. On paper it’s a subtle change yet the inclusion of “omnidirectional” player movement adds a silky smoothness that elevates each part of Treyarch’s trifecta. It’s hard to imagine this feature being dropped in future instalments.
Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order)
If you braved online gaming this year, what was the game that your gravitated towards the most? Let us know in the comments.
Tags: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Game of the Year 2024, Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2