10 Best Indie Games Of 2023, Ranked

2024 is looking as stacked as ever when it comes to innovative indie games. From Pokémon-with-guns game Palworld and the highly anticipated follow-up to Hades, there’s no shortage of games to get excited for. There’s so much to look forward to that it can be a challenge to keep track of it all, which is why we’ve put together another list of upcoming indies to add to your to-play list.

An Xbox brand account has been accused of using AI-generated art to promote indie games.

Our Game of the Year coverage continues with the Best PS5, PS4 Indie Game of 2023, of which a top four has been put together by the Push Square editorial team. This category focuses on the best PS5, PS4 titles from indie developers not afforded the big marketing pushes and significant production budgets, and a fantastic experience has arisen in spite of that. At the end, we'll list some honourable mentions.

With AAA titles becoming safer and safer, it is indie games that bring the innovation the video game industry as a whole needs. Much like the past few years, 2023 has seen the release of some excellent titles that twist defined genres into something unique, blending their excellent mechanics with visuals that may not be cutting-edge but are still pleasant enough to the eye.

As the sun sets on 2023, it’s time to look back at the year’s digital masterpieces. From groundbreaking graphics to storytelling that tugs at the heartstrings, here are the 20 best video games of 2023.

It’s been one of those strange, busy years where any of Polygon’s top 10 games of the year could have made the No. 1 slot. Heck, you could expand that outward to include the top 20. There was a wealth of great games throughout the year, making it impossible to keep up with everything — even here at Polygon, where many of our jobs are to keep up with video games. That’s why we’ve created this list of 10 games you might have missed, all from indie studios. They cover a bunch of different genres, from a goofy multiplayer game to an inventory management roguelike.

Hello everyone. The year 2023 has been a standout year for games, as we have been blessed with the release of countless top-notch titles. I hope everyone was able to discover new favorites that blew their minds and engaged them in amazing gaming experiences.

It was, by all accounts, a strange 2023 for Xbox. Its games were all over the board, and the company itself spent most of the year embroiled in the process of getting Activision Blizzard into the figurative catcher’s mitt.

It's nearly the holidays, which means some of you might be looking for something to play on your Steam Deck while you're away visiting family. The choice just got a little harder: beautiful early access tactics game Songs Of Conquest and clever fantasy citybuilder Against The Storm are both now Steam Deck verified.

It’s always the ones you don’t expect, right? In a year full of AAA powerhouses competing for the top spot, I’m actually not too surprised that Lethal Company managed to sneak in and steal hearts. Thousands of them, even.

Thirsty Suitors started out as a concept surrounding a playable card game, its director has revealed.

As we eagerly anticipate IGN’s Best Game of 2023 announcement, we as the Podcast Unlocked panel thought we’d tell you what we think is the best Xbox game of this year. After all, we talk about Xbox every single week, we use our Xbox’s constantly, and we’re fully immersed in the Xbox ecosystem. And so our group gathered, discussed, and debated. We’ll get to the winner in a bit, but first, here are the five games we settled on as nominees, listed in alphabetical order.