The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

While he didn’t go into too many details about what we can expect going forward, Okamoto noted that Konami wants to release a new game—both announced and unannounced—every year.

“Following the release of Silent Hill 2 in October 2024, we were able to deliver Silent Hill f ​​in September 2025, and the Silent Hill series is now back on track,” said Okamoto (via Google Translate). “We aim to release about one title per year, including both announced and unannounced titles. We’re not sure how far we can achieve this, but we’ll do our best as the producer of the Silent Hill series. Ideally, we’d like to keep the buzz around Silent Hill constant.”

Konami kickstarted this just a few years ago when it announced three new titles in the series—Silent Hill 2’s remake, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall. While the first two launched to wide critical acclaim, the third has received little by way of marketing so far. However, a recent leak had indicated that Silent Hill: Townfall will be coming out on March 26, 2026, which would further fall in line with Konami’s plans for a new Silent Hill game every year.

Back in October, Okamoto had noted that the three titles were announced at around the same time in 2022, so that Konami could affirm its commitment to bringing the classic horror franchise back. He said that the company wanted fans to “feel how serious we were about reviving the series.”

“Three years ago, in 2022, we announced three titles: Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall,” wrote Okamoto. “We didn’t want to just announce a single remake to ‘test the waters.’ We wanted people to feel how serious we were about reviving the series. Developing a remake and a new title simultaneously naturally involves risks, but we wanted to convey our commitment first and foremost.”

With Silent Hill: Townfall‘s rumoured release happening in just a few months, the future of the series is also being further expanded with developer Bloober Team once again taking on its past, this time around with a remake of the original Silent Hill. The studio, having previously worked on the Silent Hill 2 remake, confirmed that development on a remake of the original had begun all the way back in October.

In the meantime, check out our review of Silent Hill f. The title is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

From protagonist James Sunderland and Maria to the Bobblehead Nurses and Pyramid Head, it’s all here. Even iconic scenes like James looking at himself in the mirror at the start and gazing upon the infamous TV have been retained. Will it be enough to elevate the film beyond the original, especially with Christophe Gans returning to direct? Time will tell.

Return to Silent Hill arrives on January 23rd, 2026, in the United States. On the video game front, Screen Burn’s Silent Hill: Townfall is allegedly out in March 2026, though an official announcement is still pending. Konami is also teaming with Bloober Team once more for a remake of Silent Hill 1, which also lacks a release date.

The Silent Hill franchise has similarly seen a rise in sales, coming in at 13 million copies sold since the franchise first made its debut back in March 1999. This marks a 1.3 million rise in sales since the end of June. The sales of both Metal Gear and Silent Hill franchises were likely buoyed by the release of newer titles in their respective series – Silent Hill 2’s remake, Silent Hill f and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

Interestingly, the largest spike in the update figures comes from digital trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, which now sits at 80 million – 10 million higher in cumulative sales and downloads when compared to March 2025.

Aside from Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel and the eFootball series – currently at 900 million in cumulative sales and downloads – Metal Gear is currently the best-selling franchise for the company. Konami has also noted earlier this month that it remains committed to the Silent Hill franchise as well.

The statement came from series producer Motoi Okamoto, who revealed that Konami announced three projects simultaneously – Silent Hill 2 remake, Silent Hill f and Silent Hill: Townfall – to show how committed it was to bringing the franchise back into the mainstream.

“Three years ago, in 2022, we announced three titles: Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall,” wrote Okamoto on social media. “We didn’t want to just announce a single remake to ‘test the waters.’ We wanted people to feel how serious we were about reviving the series. Developing a remake and a new title simultaneously naturally involves risks, but we wanted to convey our commitment first and foremost.”

“Only when a new game is announced can the future of a series be seen,” he continued. “Users won’t feel motivated to engage with an IP unless they can sense it has a future. If the company takes a wait-and-see approach, so will the players. The company needs to show how serious it is so that users can get genuinely excited. I think that’s only fair.”

Silent Hill f is the most recent title to have been published by Konami. Developed by NeoBards and featuring writing by Ryukishi07, the title has seen an incredibly positive response from fans of the Silent Hill franchise as well as fans of the overall horror genre.

Konami had also confirmed that last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake had sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, helping the franchise cross the 10 million units milestone. This indicates that Silent Hill f has likely sold somewhere around 2 million copies since its release earlier this month. For more details, check out our review of Silent Hill f.

He noted that, while Konami could have simply gone with an approach that would allow it to “test the waters” for Silent Hill returning with a single release or remake, this wasn’t what the company wanted to do. Rather, Konami has been quite serious about reviving the franchise, which in turn would involve both a remake as well as a new entry in the series.

“Three years ago, in 2022, we announced three titles: Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall,” wrote Okamoto. “We didn’t want to just announce a single remake to ‘test the waters.’ We wanted people to feel how serious we were about reviving the series. Developing a remake and a new title simultaneously naturally involves risks, but we wanted to convey our commitment first and foremost.”

The risky move has quite clearly paid off for Konami, with both Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, as well as NeoBards’ Silent Hill f seeing quite a bit of critical and commercial success. He noted that players not already familiar with the series wouldn’t have engaged with a new entry as deeply if they didn’t think that there was a future for the series.

“Only when a new game is announced can the future of a series be seen,” he wrote. “Users won’t feel motivated to engage with an IP unless they can sense it has a future. If the company takes a wait-and-see approach, so will the players. The company needs to show how serious it is so that users can get genuinely excited. I think that’s only fair.”

Konami recently announced that the Silent Hill 2 remake from last year had sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. This, in turn, has helped the overall Silent Hill series hit a new sales milestone of over 10 million units. The most recent entry in the franchise was Silent Hill f which came out just last month. Developed by NeoBards and featuring writing by Ryukishi07, the title has been described quite positively by fans of the horror genre.

Earlier this month, voice actor Konatsu Kato – who plays Silent Hill f protagonist Hinako Shimizu – spoke about her time in the recording booth, as well as how she was emotionally affected by the writing and performance. While noting that the recording started off “smoothly,” Kato then revealed that she started asking herself questions, especially when it came time to having recording with her own character.

“Since I was playing Hinako, and the other actor was also playing Hinako, I’d get confused about who I was—both in the role and in reality,” she explained. “There were times back then when tears would just come out even though I wasn’t thinking about anything. The confusion grew in proportion to the “time spent facing each other,” so I remember having days when I felt like I might lose my mind.”

For more details about the recent entries in the Silent Hill franchise, check out our reviews of Silent Hill 2’s remake and Silent Hill f. In the meantime, Bloober Team has confirmed that it has begun working on a remake of the original Silent Hill.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 

Metal Gear Solid 2 was a cultural shift for the franchise, solidifying the brand as a household name in the action-adventure genre. Based on themes of the rapid spread of misinformation in the technology age and how it affects society at large, the opening hours start on a high note as you begin to explore the USS Discovery and get familiar with the new controls. The final hours start to question everything that you know about the narrative: your allies, your motivation, and the ever-looming questions about who’s right or wrong in a world that’s ruled by biased information.

It is worth noting that Gunnarsdóttir might simply be denying involvement with the project as part of a non-disclosure agreement that she might have signed. Such agreements tend to be quite common, especially when a project is secret and mean to be revealed at a later time. However, if she is telling the truth about her lack of involvement with the DLC, this could also indicate one of two things. Either the DLC is still quite far off and work on it hasn’t started yet, or Gunnarsdóttir’s characters simply aren’t part of the story that will be told in Born From a Wish.

Interestingly, reports have indicated that the Born From a Wish DLC is expected to be revealed by Konami sooner or later. However, more recent rumours have indicated that the two companies are also getting ready to announce that Silent Hill 2 will be making its way on to Xbox Series X/S. The announcement, expected to coincide with the release of Return to Silent Hill, is also slated to be accompanied with the announcement that Silent Hill 2 will be getting enhancements for the PS5 Pro.

According to a report by industry leaker AestheticGamer, “the writing should be on the wall right by now that Bloober Team is getting ready to reveal the Xbox versions of Silent Hill 2 Remake, the PS5 Pro patch likely be timed with some announcements, Born From a Wish DLC should be announced sooner or later, & likely Konami is tying it around the window of the upcoming Return to Silent Hill movie based off [Silent Hill 2].”

Silent Hill 2 was originally released on PC and PS5 last year, and saw quite a bit of critical and commercial success. The success of the title eventually even led to Bloober Team being tasked with working on another remake in the franchise – the original Silent Hill. The studio confirmed that it had begun production on this remake during a recent investor Q&A, where it also revealed that its second development team had started working on five other projects as well.

“We have two first party production teams, one of which is working on the Silent Hill 1 project and the other has started work on the next project,” said the studio in response to a question about the studio’s future in light of the recently-released horror title Cronos: The New Dawn. “As part of the second party, there are currently 5 projects.”

For more details about Silent Hill 2, check out our review.

Interestingly, while the previous – revolving around backend changes to the Silent Hill 2 remake website adding room for more platform announcements – could be indicated to be for Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 ports, the new report instead indicates that the extra space might be for a PS5 Pro upgrade for Silent Hill 2 remake.

According to AestheticGamer, “the writing should be on the wall right by now that Bloober Team is getting ready to reveal the Xbox versions of Silent Hill 2 Remake, the PS5 Pro patch likely be timed with some announcements, Born From a Wish DLC should be announced sooner or later, & likely Konami is tying it around the window of the upcoming Return to Silent Hill movie based off [Silent Hill 2].”

The Silent Hill 2 remake was originally released last year on PC and PS5. The title had proven to be quite successful for Bloober Team, with the studio ultimately also being tapped by Konami to work on a remake of the original Silent Hill. The studio had recently confirmed that production on the remake had begun during an investor Q&A.

“We have two first party production teams, one of which is working on the Silent Hill 1 project and the other has started work on the next project,” said the studio in response to a question about the studio’s future in light of the recently-released horror title Cronos: The New Dawn. “As part of the second party, there are currently 5 projects.”

Silent Hill 2, along with its remake, tells the story of a man named James Sutherland who, after getting a letter from his dead wife, decides to head to the town of Silent Hill in search of answers. Along the way, he ends up meeting a host of strange people, including a woman who looks suspiciously similar to his own wife. Ever since its original PS2 release back in 2001, Silent Hill 2 has long been praised as one of the greatest horror games to have ever been released thanks to its combination of tense atmosphere, slow-paced gameplay, and creepy setting.

The remake of Silent Hill 2 has been great news for those that never got to experience the original, since the closest thing it got to an HD Remaster was during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era where the remaster was seriously flawed, having removed crucial parts of the game’s atmosphere like its dense fog.

For more details about the Silent Hill 2 remake, check out our review.

Dealabs’ billbil-kun reports that it will arrive on October 21st for PlayStation Plus Extra (and Premium) subscribers. Given the proximity to Halloween, adding it to the Catalog, especially a year after launch, makes sense. If true, stay tuned for an official announcement sometime in the coming days.

Silent Hill 2 remake is available for PS5 and PC – check out our review here. It’s sold over two million copies as of January 2025. A remake of the first Silent Hill is in the works with Bloober Team once again at the helm. It hasn’t announced platforms or a release window, but development allegedly began over three years ago.

Alongside options to buy the title through Steam for PC and the PS5, the website also seemingly has blocks added in through CSS, which would indicate that the studio is preparing to bring the game to more platforms. Two such blocks have been spotted, which would indicate that Silent Hill 2 remake is coming to Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. It is worth noting, however, that neither Bloober Team nor Konami have made any official announcements about the matter.

Bloober Team had confirmed that it had begun production on the remake of the original Silent Hill, while also revealing that it had other projects in the works as well. During a recent investor Q&A, the studio stated that it has two development teams, with one working on Silent Hill while the other is working on a brand new major project along with 4 smaller projects.

“We have two first party production teams, one of which is working on the Silent Hill 1 project and the other has started work on the next project,” said the studio in response to a question about the studio’s future in light of the recently-released horror title Cronos: The New Dawn. “As part of the second party, there are currently 5 projects.”

The fact that Bloober Team would be working on the Silent Hill remake was officially confirmed by Konami back in June. While no solid details were revealed, the announcement was accompanied by a small video that featured music based on the original title’s theme song almost note-for-note.

A remake of the original Silent Hill likely plays into Konami’s larger plans surrounding the franchise, which seems to be mimicking Capcom’s approach with Resident Evil. For context, Capcom has been following a cadence of Resident Evil releases where a new game in the franchise is released alternatively with a remake. We saw this with Resident Evil 7 being followed by remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, which were then followed by Resident Evil Village, and then the most recent title in the series – Resident Evil 4 remake.

Silent Hill has seen two recent releases so far, with the remake of Silent Hill 2 having come out last year and this year seeing the release of a brand new entry in the franchise – Silent Hill f. If Konami wants to then go ahead with remaking Silent Hill 3 down the line, it will also require a modern take on the original Silent Hill, since the third game follows up on plot threads from the first one.

As for Silent Hill f, it was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S just last month. Check out our review for more details.