Key foods
- In 2024, the number of indie games with a score of 90+ on Metacritic set a record, with 5 titles earning “must play” designations.
- Past years also featured a remarkable mix of indie games, with 4 breaking the 90+ mark in 2023 and 2018.
If this was a good year for indie games, that's because it is. In fact, according to Metacritic, it's the best, with over 90 more indie games on the review aggregator than any other year.

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Five different games scored 90+, earning them the “Metacritic Must Play” designation, a feat never before achieved.
2024 was the best year for India
This year, India has shined, with the following five games achieving 90+ scores on Metacritic:
Things got off to a good start in February when The Game Awards' Game of the Year nominee Bahiru lured players in with its more evil and mischievous action Roguelike. was coming, and the deep and mysterious Metroidvania Animal Well dropped, earning a perfect score from us at TheGamer.
Then, August and September saw a pair of indie greats, Thank God You're Here and UFO 50 released. Finally, in October, the definitive version of Slay The Princess was released, making it the best way to play one of last year's highest scores.
Alongside these five, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and Neva were both nominated for 'Best Indie Game' at The Game Awards, and Manor Lords, The Plucky Squire and Pacific Drive were nominated for 'Best Indie Debut', showing the strength of this deep shows He was years old.
It was close though
While 2024 was the first year that five independent games reached the 90+ mark, four games broke the record in the next few years.
Last year, Baldur's Gate 3 (which is Technically an indie game), Against The Storm, Slay The Princess and Videoverse all scored 90+. 2018, widely considered the best year ever for indie games, also saw four 90+ hits, with Hades, Celeste, Hollow Knight, and Into the Breach all doing so.
Who said you need three big games to have a good year?

Bahiru takes the classic card game of poker and adds roguelike gameplay, building your deck using joker cards of various abilities and trying to defeat pesky blinds.