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RPG Site Best of 2023 Awards: Readers' Choice in Detail

by RPG Site Staff on 03 January, 2024

Each year here at RPG Site, we wrap up a year of hopefully great RPG-playing action by publically polling you, our readers, to find out what YOU ranked as the best RPGs of the year. As usual, we allow consideration for both pure-blood RPGs and a few adjacent games that we feel RPG fans would enjoy. 

We had you vote in two separate polls: Your favorite RPG of 2023 and your most anticipated RPG for 2024. We already posted our Staff Best of 2023 Awards and our own Most Anticipated for 2024, but we wanted to hear what you had to say. We have results for both polls listed below.

Thousands of you voted, and as ever the results are interesting. As with previous years, there are places that mirror our staff choices and places that offer a different, alternative take from ours. So... how did you, the great RPG-playing public, vote? Small reminder: Our polling release period goes from December 2022 to December 2023.

Here are the results. Results are given as percentages of the total number of votes.

Your Top Ten RPGs of 2023

  1. Baldur's Gate 3 - 23.6% (Larian - PS5/PC)

  2. Octopath Traveler II - 13.0% (Square Enix - PS5/PS4/Switch/PC)

  3. Final Fantasy XVI - 9.1% (Square Enix - PS5)

  4. The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie - 4.4% (NIS America - PS5/PS4/Switch/PC)

  5. Sea of Stars - 4.1% (Sabotage Studio - PS4/XB1/Switch/PC)

  6. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - 4.1% (CD Projekt RED - PS5/XS/PC)

  7. Chained Echoes - 4.0% (Deck13 - PS4/XB1/Switch/PC)

  8. Star Ocean: The Second Story R - 3.6% (Square Enix - PS5/PS4/Switch/PC)

  9. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 3.3% (Nintendo - Switch)

  10. Lies of P - 2.9% (Neowiz - PS5/PS4/XS/XB1/PC)

Readers' Choice Favorite 2022 RPGs - Additional Facts and Comments

  • Our ninth year of the fan poll sees Baldur's Gate 3 join Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Shin Megami Tensei V, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dragon Quest XI, Persona 5, Final Fantasy XV, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as our reader's poll winners. (2015 Results / 2016 Results / 2017 Results / 2018 Results / 2019 results / 2020 results / 2021 results / 2022 results).
  • Some "narrow misses" outside the top ten include Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed and Fire Emblem Engage.
  • While Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 is the clear overall winner of the poll, Square Enix is the publisher with the highest combined vote count with three titles in the top ten.
  • A single vote separated Sea of Stars from Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and both of those titles were only a handful of votes above Chained Echoes. Every vote counts!
  • Last year, no Western RPGs made their way into the top ten vote-getters. In 2023, four Western-developed games appear in the top ten, the most in RPG Site polling history.

Your Readers' Choice Most Anticipated 2024 RPGs

  1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - 20.4% (Square Enix)

  2. Dragon's Dogma 2 - 10.3% (Capcom)

  3. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth - 7.7% (Sega)

  4. Persona 3: Reload - 7.1% (Sega)

  5. Metaphor: ReFantazio - 5.8% (Sega)

  6. Hades II - 5.8% (Supergiant Games)

  7. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak - 5.2% (NIS America)

  8. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - 5.0% (505 Games)

  9. Granblue Fantasy Relink - 3.9% (Cygames)

  10. Unicorn Overlord - 3.7% (Sega)

Readers' Choice Most Anticipated 2023 RPGs - Additional Facts and Comments

  • This is RPG Site's sixth year polling our readers for their Most Anticipated RPG of the upcoming year. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth joins Elden Ring, Shin Megami Tensei V, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Kingdom Hearts III. (2023 results / 2022 results / 2021 results / 2020 results / 2019 results).
  • Narrow misses for the reader top ten Most Anticipated include Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.
  • While Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the clear winner of the Most Anticipated vote, Sega is the publisher with the highest number of votes across four separate RPGs landing in the top ten. It's looking like a big year for Sega RPGs from RGG Studio, Atlus, and Vanillaware.
  • Supergiant Games' Hades is the only Western game in the reader's poll top ten Most Anticipated games, and it's more roguelike action than full role-playing game.
  • Metaphor: ReFantazio only beat Hades by a single vote.