The top five videos games of 2021 selected by the NPR staff
Our picks for best new games run from the humorous to the horrific (sometimes, both at once!), from tight single-player stories to sprawling online sandboxes.
In a world that remains anything but normal, gaming has become a source of companionship and catharsis. The game industry has struggled to keep up as major releases like and have once again been delayed by the pandemic. But you'd be hard pressed to find a year with more breadth. Over 11 thousand unique titles were released to the , thousands more than any other year. Consoles like the Xbox Series X, PS5, and Nintendo Switch each deepened their catalogs with new franchises and on platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
