As 2026 unfolds, it’s impossible to scroll through gaming feeds without stumbling upon retrospectives of 2023—a year so stacked with bangers that even Geoff Keighley himself ran out of breath announcing them all. From indies that punched way above their weight to triple-A juggernauts that shattered sales records, the lineup was nothing short of legendary. While the intervening years have brought their own heavy hitters, the ten titles celebrated in TheGamer’s 2023 Game of the Year editor’s picks haven’t aged a day; in fact, many are still setting the bar against which new releases are measured. Here’s a deep dive into why these masterpieces continue to dominate conversations, influence game design, and live rent-free in players’ heads.
10. Spider-Man 2
Insomniac didn’t just deliver a sequel; they practically gift-wrapped a love letter to the Spider-Verse. The real win here wasn’t just the jaw-dropping web-swinging or the seamless character swapping—it was the studio’s commitment to letting players enjoy a complete, satisfying story without a hundred hours of busywork. Ditching the radial menus was a chef’s kiss moment that showed the team listened. Even in 2026, open-world developers cite the game’s pacing and respect for the player’s time as a gold standard. The fact that fans could happily swing through New York over a single weekend remains a flex that few modern blockbusters can match.
9. Chants of Sennaar
In a landscape dominated by shooters and open worlds, this detective-puzzle gem was the breath of fresh air nobody saw coming. Built around the myth of the Tower of Babel, Chants of Sennaar dared players to decode four completely alien languages using nothing but context, intuition, and good old trial and error. The incremental “aha!” moments hit like dopamine avalanches, proving that learning can actually be a blast—even if it won’t help you order tapas. The genre it helped codify, alongside Return of the Obra Dinn and The Curse of the Golden Idol, still thrives in 2026, and indie devs regularly cite its design as a North Star for non-combat progression.
8. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Let’s be real: movie tie-ins have a stink attached to them, but Frontiers of Pandora turned that notion on its head. Often dismissed as Ubisoft’s Far Cry with blue skin, it ended up being the studio’s most stunning open world since Immortals Fenyx Rising. The visuals, even three years later, are borderline show-off material—the kind that makes PC gamers upgrade their rigs out of FOMO. Beyond the eye candy, the lush ecosystem and verticality of flight mechanics influenced a wave of subsequent open-world adventures. It’s the game that proved Pandora isn’t just a pretty backdrop; it’s a living, breathing playground that players still eagerly revisit.
7. Remnant 2
Co-op shooters come and go, but Remnant 2 sticks around like a loyal sidekick. Gunfire Games doubled down on what made the first entry a sleeper hit: crunchy gunplay, nightmarish creature designs, and maps so densely packed with secrets that completionists lose their minds. The real magic, though, is how the game became a social lifeline. When life threw curveballs—babies, jobs, cross-country moves—Remnant 2 was the meeting ground where friends reconnected. Even in 2026, the community digs up Easter eggs that the devs snuck in years ago, cementing the title as the undisputed champion of “just one more run” syndrome.
6. Pixelborn
Technically an unofficial client for the Disney Lorcana trading card game, Pixelborn became the little engine that could—and did. Operating in a perpetual gray area, this passion project by Pavel Kolev gave a massive shot in the arm to the TCG community, letting players brew decks and grind matches without breaking the bank on physical boosters. By 2026, the digital card game landscape has evolved dramatically, but many point to Pixelborn as the catalyst that showed how grassroots software can launch a multi-million-dollar IP into orbit. It may have been a cheat code for a GOTY list, but the influence is genuine, and the lorcana scene still tips its hat to the tool that made it all happen.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
If video games had watershed moments, Tears of the Kingdom would be underlined, bolded, and highlighted. Sure, building mechs out of rusty shovels and mine carts was cool, but the true revolution was philosophical: the game wiped away the guiding hand of design and told players, “If it worked, you did it right.” That shift in agency didn’t just break dungeon puzzles; it broke players’ expectations of interactive media. Three years later, its DNA is everywhere—crafting systems, emergent gameplay philosophies, and even game journalism itself still wrestle with the standard it set. The game remains a Rorschach test for creativity, and its legacy only deepens as more devs attempt (and often fail) to bottle the same lightning.
4. Metroid Prime Remastered
Remasters rarely make GOTY lists, but Metroid Prime Remastered wasn’t just a fresh coat of paint—it was a definitive upscaling of a timeless classic. Running on the creaky Switch hardware, the game somehow looked like it belonged on a high-end PC, and the updated dual-stick controls finally delivered the experience fans dreamed of two decades ago. In 2026, it’s still the version newcomers are told to play, and it sparked an industry-wide conversation about preserving older titles with dignity rather than slapping on a resolution bump. For a game that’s been played to death, it managed to feel like a brand-new adventure, proving that some masterpieces just get better with age.
3. Resident Evil 4
Capcom pulled off the impossible: remaking one of the most beloved games of all time and actually improving it. Resident Evil 4 Remake was a relentless parade of set-pieces, a 15-hour adrenaline drip with zero filler. Every corridor, every boss fight, every reload landed with the weight of a blockbuster climax. The team somehow made the 2005 original feel like a first draft for this tighter, more terrifying vision. Fast-forward to 2026, and the remake is still the gold standard for survival-action, a clinic in pacing and tone that modern developers study like a sacred text. It proved that nostalgia can be weaponized for good, delivering an experience that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the original while feeling utterly fresh.
2. Slay the Princess
Deceptively simple on the surface, Slay the Princess was a narrative sucker punch that left players questioning their own existence at 3 a.m. Marketed as a choice-driven horror visual novel, it instead delivered an existential crisis wrapped in a deceptively cozy art style. This was the kind of game that ruined you—in the best way possible—by forcing a confrontation with the void and the nature of choice itself. In the years since, it has become a staple in discussions about art’s ability to disturb and enlighten. If the Game Awards had a “Game That Haunts Your Dreams Forever” award, this one would have swept it. Its influence ripples through narrative indie darlings that dare to ask uncomfortable questions, and its cult following only grows more passionate with each passing year.
Honorable Mentions
No GOTY season is complete without the titles that narrowly missed the podium. In 2023, Steamworld Build gave cozy management sims a new gold rush, Asgard’s Wrath 2 threw down a gauntlet for VR spectacle, Diablo 4 pulled millions into its dark hellscape (despite some late-game stumbles), and Cocoon delivered mind-bending puzzle elegance that still makes players’ brains hurt in the best way. They may not have made the top ten then, but in 2026 their legacies are secure as vital pieces of a year that refused to quit.
1. Alan Wake 2
Topping the 2023 list and still the crown jewel of Remedy’s portfolio, Alan Wake 2 was a postmodern fever dream that dared to blend meta-camp, musical numbers, and blood-chilling horror into a cohesive masterpiece. In an era where triple-A games often feel designed by committee, this title felt fiercely personal—a singular vision that wore its influences proudly but never felt like a copycat. The way it effortlessly hopscotched between tones, weaving live-action film and original songs directly into the narrative, set a precedent that 2024 and 2025 releases are still trying to match. Even now, deep-dive analyses flood forums, dissecting every loop and symbol. Remedy didn’t just make a game; they crafted a work of art that will be studied and celebrated for many years to come, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that video games can still take wild, uncompromising swings and knock it straight out of the park.