This article is part of Dot Esports’ Game of the Year 2023 series. The Dot Esports team has voted for their favorite games this year across a range of genres, including sports, indie, and fighting games. You can check out the other winners here.
2023 was an exceptional year for new titles, but there are also plenty of ongoing live-service games that deserve some love for their consistent updates, new content, and fun seasonal additions that keep players coming back for more after their original release.
A live-service game is only as good as the flow of content and quality-of-life updates that come to it throughout the year. If it does this well, it can bring in new players while also satisfying those who’ve been playing the game for months or years.
The Dot Esports team has voted, and the results are in. Here is Dot’s official Live-Service Game of the Year 2023.
Dot Live-Service GOTY 2023: Marvel Snap
Dot Esports’ Live-Service Game of the Year is Marvel Snap.
After its early access release last October, Marvel Snap has proven to be one of the most consistent and exciting games on both mobile and PC. The comic book card battler seemingly has a never-ending flow of content in the pipeline, and 2023 proved it.
Every single month of 2023 featured a new season for Marvel Snap, with each season adding a season pass that included a new card plus three or four additional cards throughout the month.
One of the benefits of working with a major IP like Marvel Comics is that the game has a seemingly unlimited collection of content to pull from, including new cards, locations, and more. Seasonal drops always seem to coincide with new movies in the MCU, like Ant-Man in February, Guardians of the Galaxy in May, and November’s Ms. Marvel-themed season, so there’s always something to look forward to.
As a free-to-play mobile game, Snap can be a bit pay-to-progress faster, but free players can find new cards in Spotlight Caches, one of several key new additions to the game that made it easier for newer players to catch up.
Make no mistake, you can whale in Marvel Snap by paying to upgrade cards and ascend through Collection Levels, but the game limits how much you can spend daily. A free player, dedicated enough to play and finish weekly and daily missions, can hold their own just fine.
Snap‘s 2023 was solidified with August’s full release following early access on PC, which added a widescreen UI to the client and the inception of Twitch drops which provided a huge boon to the game’s viewership, along with some cool free items.
If you’re willing to dedicate the time and potentially a bit of money for each season ($10 per season pass per month), then Snap is a great game to get involved in if you’re looking for something to play either on the go or from the comfort of your desktop PC. And you can get into Snap knowing full well that the game is likely going to be supported for several years to come.
Honorable Mentions
VALORANT
VALORANT has enjoyed a steady rise in player count over the years, in part due to new gameplay additions that keep players engaged, and 2023 was no different. This past year, VALORANT debuted new maps in Lotus and Sunset, introduced Gekko, Deadlock, and Iso to the agent pool, and added fresh ways to play, like Team Deathmatch and Premier. These new additions sated both the casual and competitive players, and were flanked by consistent agent/map updates and fixes as well as subtle but necessary tweeks. VALORANT has become a hit, most notably with younger players, and keeping a demographic like that engaged for such a long period of time is no easy feat.
Apex Legends
Apex Legends hasn’t had a perfect year; in fact, a few changes made were nothing short of catastrophic (looking at you, season 17 ranked). But Respawn has been remarkably consistent in its efforts to push the game forward in 2023 and to clean up messes. The ranked system is worlds better than it was a couple months ago, the revamped class perk system and Storm Point updates are great, and both new legend Conduit and the reworked Revenant have been resounding character release successes. With cross-progression also finally beginning to roll out, it’s been a positive year for Apex, no matter what Reddit tells you.
