Welcome To Aftermath’s 2023 Game Of The Year Deathmatch

As the year draws to a close, we here at Aftermath Dot Site felt it was only fitting to look back on the last 12 months and try to come up with some kind of list of the Best Games Of 2023. Maybe even a single best game.

The thing is, everyone else does that already. If you read video game websites or listen to video game podcasts or watch video game videos you're no doubt already awash in other people's deliberations on what they felt was the best game of the year.

Our official policy on that is: whatever game you feel in your heart was the best game you played this year wins Game Of The Year. That's it! No discussions necessary! So instead of spending weeks arguing about the merits of Baldur's Gate 3's "D&D for theatre kids", Zelda's open world recycling efforts or Alan Wake's Alan Wakeness, we wanted to do something else.

So welcome to Aftermath's 2023 Game Of The Year DEATHMATCH. A knockout tournament where we have selected 16 of 2023's biggest video games and are pitting them in a fight to the death. Actually, that's not quite correct. We're not pitting the games themselves against each other. That would be weird, and require lengthy, genuine criticism, and during the holiday season that's the last thing we want to subject you to (or have to write, to be honest).

Instead, we have selected a single Champion from each game to represent it. That Champion will enter the arena against a challenger, duke it out in hand-to-hand (or weapon-to-weapon) combat and, if successful, they'll move onto the next round. If not, they are eliminated. Who are these Champions going to be? What are the rules of engagement? Where are these battles taking place? Who knows, we're making this up for each round as we go!

Below you'll find the First Round matchups as they currently stand (you can follow along here)

If you'd like to start taking bloodthirsty bets in the comments, please make sure sports betting is legal in your state/territory before doing so. Otherwise, you can follow the tournament here (or by simply checking the front page of Aftermath during Dec/Jan!).