Pocket Gamer Awards 2024 Winners and Game of the Year Announced
- After two months of nominations and voting, the winners of this year’s Pocket Gamer Awards have been announced.
- While there were plenty of expected names, there were also a few surprise winners who took home public voting awards.
- It’s been one of the most successful years for mobile gaming ever, and public voting shows just that.
After monthly nominations, a month of voting and a massive awards show, the winners of the 2024 Pocket Gamer Awards have finally been announced.
It was a stunning result and the list of winners really shows how far the industry has come since we first presented our awards (with the reader’s choice topping just one of the categories) back in 2010.
I’ve been lucky enough to see how this has all progressed since we first included nominations back in early October, and it’s been a huge triumph. But it’s not just a triumph because we got lots and lots of votes (we did), it’s a critical triumph because I feel like this is the first year that we as mobile gamers can proudly say that we’ve created a list of winners that’s truly representative of the entire industry.
It’s all here, from the world’s biggest companies (NetEase with Sony IP: Tencent-backed Destiny, SuperCell, Scopely; along with some of the oldest game publishers: Konami and Bandai Namco) to indie hobbyists like Rusty Lake, Emoak. It was also an amazing year for ports. Just as adaptations of mobile classics regularly appear on PC, we’ve seen plenty of great games take a different route this year, and that’s reflected in three incredibly strong award-winning ports.
However, enough prefaces. You can find all the winners below:
Best Updated Game of the Year
Brawl Stars started the year with some amazing changes from new producers – this led to significant changes to the gameplay, and by May 2024 the game made more money than it did in all of 2023 (Pocketgamer.biz).
Best Multiplayer Game
NetEase’s StumbleGuys killer, Eggy Party, was slowly spreading around the world, gradually adding new regions to its servers, but one day finally reached us, we were fascinated. Our 2024 Pocket Gamer Awards for Best Multiplayer Game isn’t the first award it’s received: it also won gold at the Google Play Awards earlier this year.
Best game we still play
A worthy winner in one of the most controversial award categories this year. Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus isn’t just a fan success story, as those of you who listen to our podcast know, it managed to lure half the podcast team.
Best Digital Board Game of the Year
There was absolutely no doubt that Jimbo Balatro will receive an award this year – we just weren’t sure which one. It’s a heroic indie game that hooks itself right into you with a combination of luscious screen shake, magnetic math, and a phenomenal risk-reward system that encourages you to take full responsibility for your failure. It’s definitely not poker, but it was the winner of this year’s Best Digital Table Game of the Year.
Best Family Game of the Year
My daughter got a Tamagotchi Junior for Christmas last year (I’m keeping an eye on it as I write this, you should know), but neither of us expected the game to come into our lives so soon after the Nightmare Egg itself showed up. But it launched at the very beginning of the year, and despite being so long ago, it clearly resonated with more than just our reviewer Jack, as people collectively weighed in and said it was good, nay, the best family game of the year.
Best Puzzle Game of the Year
The 17th adventure from longtime indie darling Rusty Lake, Underground Blossom, follows the character’s life as told through flashbacks spent in train stations. It’s poignant and well deserving of this year’s award.
Best Action Game of the Year
Many of us on the team were willing to BET our reputations on Vampire Survivors winning the award at this year’s awards ceremony. It’s a combination of fantastic post-launch content and an incredibly tight gameplay loop that, like the best aRPGs, makes you feel like a grandmaster when you win and a fool when you lose.
Best RPG of the Year
This fantastic real-life simulator really stuck with our team members after the perfect port (from the notorious “good porters” Playdigious) appeared on mobile devices back in February of this year. Transforming efforts typically centered on farming into a hunt for cures, a search for friends, and a mission to heal the sick resulted in a great story that felt immediately at home with touchscreen controls.
Best mobile publisher
Founded back in 2001, Miniclip has gone from strength to strength over the past twenty-three years. Their collaboration with and subsequent acquisition of the Subway Surfers brand has made them an incredibly familiar name, and they have never been afraid to stray from the usual conventions as they are known for keeping their web gaming portal running while others fade from the scene . .
Best Strategy Game of the Year
If you had told me a year ago that this year I would be writing about an open-world sea pirate-themed game featuring a seafaring raccoon named Rocky, I would have laughed at you. Sea of Conquest has gone from strength to strength since launch, now entering its fifth season and with a companion comic book series in development.
Best Sports Game of the Year
It’s been a strange few years for football games: the annual Football Manager series was skipped this year, EA lost the FIFA license, and eFootball (not PES, of course) took advantage of this by continuing to become a better game. and better shape. Konami played the long game here and it’s definitely paying off worldwide now.
Best Platformer of the Year
Little Nightmares is definitely the underdog here, as it’s a port of something that was exciting and capturing people’s imaginations back in 2017. It had a tough time getting to mobile devices, as rumors of a port were initially confirmed back in 2022. We’re glad he made the journey, and obviously the fans are too, getting a well-deserved victory in this atmospheric fright fest.
Best Simulation Game of the Year
This is one of the most exciting awards for me, and I have to admit, when I think of a category called Simulation, I don’t really expect to say that. I first noticed Roya when Scott from our video team did a short story about her. I was immediately attracted to the idea of creating pathways for water, and it is clear that I was not alone in finding great peace in the hours I whiled away with it.
Best Roblox game
I don’t know much about Roblox, and I’m pretty sure if I asked my son what Murder Mystery 2 was, he would either grumble at me or say something like “Skeebeedy, Ohio.” Either way, fans of the game came out in droves, driving away the masses of others who had come to vote for their favorite Roblox game. It was a tight competition and the team was lucky to receive the recognition it deserved.
Best mobile port
Well done to Balatro for being the only game to win more than a top card and winning, along with Best Digital Board Game of the Year, a couple of awards.
Most anticipated game
Most Anticipated Game is a new award for us this year, fueled by the growing interest we’re seeing in our upcoming coverage of the game. Despite only being announced in mid-October, Destiny: Rising has clearly generated a lot of interest from dedicated console and PC fans, and why not? We already have some fantastic shooters on mobile, and this one is a great fit.
Best Community
Marvel Contest of Champions is now ten years old and still continues to shine, adding new characters and storylines regularly. I don’t think there’s a Marvel release like this out there, and it’s clear they’re doing something very, very right given the sheer size of the community that has come out and supported them. both stages of nomination and voting.
Best Mobile Developer
Supercell are the cautious giants of the mobile gaming market, previously known for their slow and meticulous approach to releasing games late into the night. However, the past period has shown that they can adapt thanks to a new approach to development studios (Cells), as well as the acquisition of BeatStar developer Space Ape Games and rapid action to develop several games, as well as reworking existing giants: Clash. clans and Brawl Stars.
Best eSports Game
The Stumble Guys have come a very long way, and being recognized for their success in esports highlights just how extensive that journey has been. It was initially criticized by some as a Fall Guys clone, but its development has accelerated. Scopely acquired it in a surprise move, simultaneously showing how careful real-time work can turn any game into a long-term success.
Mobile Game of the Year
Bloons TD 6 was released in 2018. What is he doing here? This was before I started working at Pocket Gamer, and now I mostly focus on furniture. Well, even though it came out six years ago, it continues to receive new content regularly (The Glacial Trail was released in December 2023, for example), and not only that, but new versions as well.
This award has had several categories that have found a second life on mobile devices (such as ports), as well as those that have continued to evolve over time (eSports, Community, Best Update). It made perfect sense to us that Ninja Kiwi’s Bloons TD 6 made the shortlist, if only because of its incredibly enhanced Apple Arcade version that was released recently. It’s clear that the public agreed with us, as they supported our vote and made this phenomenal tower defense masterclass our mobile game of the year.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks for reading and voting. It’s been an amazing awards season this year and I can’t wait to see what we’ll be celebrating next year.