If you know one thing about me from the last 17+ year of being on Giant Bomb, it's... well it's probably EverQuest related. But, if there's TWO things, then it's probably that I love stats. I wasn't able to do this post last year because two staff members never made a list. The horror!
So, if you're new, we're going to compare the official Top 10 list the site decided upon to the math Top 10 list, which is derived from assigning points to their individual Top 10s. As always, I have to say that I'm not doing this to say that it should be done this way. I just think it's fun to look at the differences and how a discussion can affect the cold hard math.
The Official Top 10
The Math Top 10
Side by Side
From the Math Top 10, you can see that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the only game that appeared on everyone's list and it was #1 for two people. So, it makes sense that it found its way to the #1 spot.
Dispatch appeared on 6 out of 7 lists, but no one had it at #1. In the deliberations, it fell from #2 to #3. That makes sense to me.
Hades II appeared on 5 out of 7 lists and was #1 for two people. But, it still fell from #3 to #5.
Donkey Kong Bananza, which also had 5 votes putting it at #4 on the Math Top 10, nearly got eliminated at one point during the discussions. But, DK still hung on at #8.
Blue Prince appeared on 4 out of 7 lists, but no higher than #3 for anyone. Despite this, it jumped from #5 all the way to #2!
Hollow Knight: Silksong only appeared on 3 out of 7 lists, but it was Mike's #1 and Dan's #2, which helped propel it up the list from #6 to #4.
Shawn was able to nudge his personal #1, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, up one spot from #7 to #6.
Similarly, Grubb was able to get his personal #1, Baby Steps, up from #8 to #7.
Silent Hill f, which was #9 on the Math Top 10, was the last game eliminated in the discussions. This is in line with most years as people's personal #1s make it onto the bottom of the list. Skate Story, which was #10, suffered the same fate.
Sektori was Grubb's #2, but did not appear on any other lists. Despite this, it jumped from #13 all the way onto the official Top 10 at #9.
LEGO Party! appeared on 3 out of 7 lists, but was low on all of those. However, it jumped from #16 to #10 as it was a game that everyone had a good time with this year. And it proves Mario Party is ass.
Two Point Museum is a game.
After all was said and done, Grubb lead with 8 games from his personal list making it into the official Top 10. Dan & Mike had 7.
Guests' Top 25
The score here is also based on a weighted 1st=10, 2nd=9, etc. However, if a guest gave an unordered list, I gave each game 5.5 points. This makes both a ranked list of 10 and an unranked list of 10 worth 55 maximum points.
We had 63 guest lists this year, which is more than ever before! From those guests, we had 210 different games nominated. That's a tie with the 210 in 2019, which was the record as far as I know.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dominated this list as well with 11 first place votes. The next closest was Silksong with 4.
Two games got a first place vote with no other votes; Counter-Strike 2 and Chrono Trigger.
Only 36.5% of guests submitted a full list of 10 ranked games, which is way down from the 58.3% in 2023.
Silent Hill f was the highest rank game that had zero 1st place votes. Fifteen people liked it, but no one loved it.
The oldest game named was Chrono Trigger (1995).
Six games are on both the staff list and the guest list. Silent Hill f, Ghost of Yōtei, Ball X Pit, and Elden Ring Nightreign made it on the guest list while Shinobi, Baby Steps, Sektori, and LEGO Party! made it to the staff list instead.
The site's Moderators and Rhys Elliott both got 7 games in the Top 10. The mods had all 7 of the Top 7, though. Once again, the true voice of the people!