The Best Xbox Game Every Year 2001 - 2024

Before the turn of the millennium, the idea of Microsoft entering the console space was laughable.

So, it says a lot about their heights that not only have they made room for themselves (and become a major player, in fact), they changed the industry forever. Xbox's legacy, from a zoomed-out perspective, contains some of the biggest games from the last two decades, the first successes of online console gaming and some truly revolutionary hardware.

Right now, in 2024, Microsoft's gaming division is in a strange place. On the one hand, they've secured the biggest deal in the industry with their acquisition of Activision-Blizzard to bolster their hard-to-beat GamePass catalogue. However, there have also never been so many questions about what the future holds for the brand, and whether they intend to continue to develop hardware or produce titles at all.

As such, it's an appropriate time to look back on their history, starting from the humble beginnings of the giant black-and-green brick that was the first Xbox to today, and picking out the best Xbox title of every year.

In the name of fairness, this list will only consider exclusives, including timed/staggered releases or, in some cases, console exclusives (games that were released simultaneously for Windows).

With the original Xbox launching in November 2001, there's a fairly small roster of games to pick from. That said, the choice is clear.

Development of Halo: Combat Evolved was a tumultuous road, starting in 1997 as a Mac computer real-time strategy title in it's earliest form. Through the years, Halo would transform into a first-person shooter that led players through a deep, space-faring narrative. The first instalment introduced the world to the legendary figure of Master Chief, the face of not just the Halo series but the Xbox brand. Even today when the franchise is in a less healthy place, Spartan 117 is still synonymous with the big, green X.

Microsoft needed a big system seller and Halo got the world talking instantly. There was something completely addictive about the gameplay loop; the thrill of fighting down waves of aliens with a roster of incredibly satisfying weaponry, not to mention vehicular combat, across some massive maps. It pioneered in a great many places, and where it wasn't the first it was quite simply the most refined, breaking open the floodgates for console FPS experiences. 

It's appropriate to kick this list off with almost unquestionably the most important game in the history of Xbox. Halo was a true system seller, and it's not too bold a claim that its success allowed Microsoft to take the foothold they needed to enter the console gaming market.