First off, I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays, and if you work, I hope you’ve been able to do everything but work during these past couple days. Whether you’re playing sports games or not right now, I do want to let you know that the 2024 Sports Game of the Year voting has started on OS. If you’re unaware, we do an editorial vote and community vote and then share the results once we hit the New Year. If you’d like to vote, here is a link to the poll.

As for the competition in 2024, it will not end up being a banner year for sports games. There are some positives to be found like any season, but 2024 is not going to go in the Pantheon or be on the Mount Rushmore of sports gaming years. However, I have been thinking about what years would be considered among the greatest of all-time. And, at first, I thought it would quickly become self-evident what year should reign supreme, but it’s actually been tough trying to pick a winner.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that my list will mostly be concentrated within a 10-year period, and that mostly comes down to the vast amount of choices we had for sports games during the Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis era up through about 2010 or so before it really starts to just be closer to one video game per sport. If I was to do a “best decade” list, the 2010s and even 1980s would likely be more competitive, but even the most amazing one-off titles can’t overwhelm 5-10 great sports games coming out within months of each other.

That being said, I’m going to run through my top five list and crown a winner.

The Best Sports Gaming Year Of All-Time

Honorable Mentions

1994 - The heavy hitters include NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, Madden 95, NBA Live 95, NHL 95, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, and Bill Walsh College Football. The thing working against this year is I would argue that no game outside of maybe Ken Griffey Jr. is the best game from that generation of titles. NBA Jam: T.E. would be the other contender, but I think the AI is actually worse in T.E.

1991 - The heavy hitters are Tecmo Super Bowl, Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, Super Tennis, and F-Zero if you want to stretch the qualifications. Tecmo Super Bowl’s significance is obvious, Super Tennis is the best tennis game maybe until Virtua Tennis, and Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 was a great twist on baseball games at the time. The issue is we’re still a couple years away from EA taking off and there aren’t enough good games quite yet as stuff like Joe Montana 2, Madden 92, and NHL Hockey are not in the best spot yet.

2010 - Similar to 1991, we have something like NBA 2K11 (Jordan Challenge) as one of the more influential sports games of an era, but there’s not quite enough around it. Skate 3, Fight Night Champion, UFC Undisputed 2010, FIFA World Cup: South Africa, the NBA Jam reboot, and then the various 2K and EA titles are all still here, but nothing except NBA 2K11 is truly exceptional.

2000 - This is the toughest year to leave off the top five as we have Madden 2001, SSX, Backyard Baseball 2001, All-Star Baseball 2001, WWF No Mercy, Mario Tennis, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, NBA 2K1, NFL 2K1, and then even more football games like QB Club 2001 and Blitz 2001. What barely keeps it off is similar to 1994 in that there’s just better games in most of these series. WWF No Mercy is the obvious exception, but we can do better on the whole.

#5) 2009

Headliners: The Bigs 2, Fight Night Round 4, Skate 2, NHL 10, NBA 2K10, FIFA 10, MLB 09: The Show, NBA 2K10

Solid Games: NHL 2K10, Madden 10, PES 2009, NBA Live 10, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii version), Wii Sports Resort, Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, UFC 2009 Undisputed

In retrospect, 2009 is the end of the era of choice. We’re a year away from NBA 2K11, and we still get Skate 3 and one more Fight Night game in 2010, but we’re about to lose NHL 2K, The Bigs, and the Wii is about to become irrelevant for sports games, which will close off another avenue for fresh titles.

What holds this year back from climbing any higher is I don’t think it is an incredibly strong year for “traditional” sports games. MLB 2K9 (Lincecum cover) is just a bad game this year, and PES is starting to really fall off as well. NBA Live 10 makes a comeback of sorts for this season, but we’re just a year away from the NBA Elite 11 debacle.

On the bright side, FIFA is in the midst of its renaissance, both hockey games are very good (albeit this isn’t the best year ever for either game), and MLB The Show and NBA 2K are either already good or about to hit their peaks for this era.

Skate 2 is also a classic to me, and The Bigs 2 is very playable even today because of its incredible career mode. I know more people would take Skate 3 over 2 so I’m in the minority on that one, but Skate 3 goes just a pinch too far away from the “sim” gameplay that had originally won me over when I was looking for a Tony Hawk alternative. Lastly, Fight Night Round 4 is not everyone’s favorite Fight Night from this era (Round 3 and Champion both could be argued), but it has an incredible roster and feels like the perfection of the formula EA had already put together in Round 3.

If I could swap out a couple games from 2009 with their 2010 versions (notably UFC Undisputed), then I could definitely push this year higher. But that ain’t the game we’re playing here so this is as high as I could put 2009.

#4) 2001

Headliners: SSX Tricky, NBA Street, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, NBA 2K2, NFL 2K2, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, High Heat 2002, Triple Play Baseball, Madden 2002

Solid Games: All-Star Baseball 2001, NCAA Football 2002, NBA Live 2002, Rugby 2001, NASCAR Heat 2002, NASCAR Thunder 2002, F1 2001, Hot Shots Golf 3, Dave Mirra BMX 2, WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001

Somehow there are three years I consider better than this one, but good lord look at that lineup. We have the best SSX game of all-time, the start of NBA Street, the NBA 2K and NFL 2K games have hit their stride, this is maybe the best version of High Heat we ever get, and we have a bunch of games coming to the PS2 for the first time, including Triple Play Baseball.

I can go on…We might also have the best Gran Turismo game of all-time, and Madden 2002 would be remembered more fondly if we weren’t about to get Madden 04 and 05. The weaknesses here are we’re missing great hockey and golf games. I’m sure some folks have fond memories of NHL 2001, but I think most of the PS2 NHL and NBA games from EA were misses, especially early on in the generation.

#3) 2007

Headliners: College Hoops 2K8, Skate, All-Pro Football 2K8, NCAA Baseball 07, The Bigs, NBA Street Homecourt, MLB 2K7, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Solid Games: NHL 08, Madden 08, UEFA Champions League 2006-2007, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Forza 2, NBA 2K8, NBA Live 08, NHL 2K8, MLB 07: The Show, Smackdown vs. Raw 2008

2007 is a funny year because it’s another time (like 2009) where we don’t realize we’re about to lose a bunch of games because we were also gaining them in the moment. 2007 also doesn’t have quite the depth of 2001, but it has something for everyone.

But, yes, this is the final year for any major 2K football game, plus we lose college baseball from EA, college basketball from 2K, and the NBA Street series. But we gain The Bigs, Skate, and at the time it was the revival of 2K football.

You can point to any of the “major” sports and pick out a top-end game for this year:

• Basketball - College Hoops 2K8

• Football - All-Pro Football 2K8

• Baseball - MLB 2K7 (plus the first Show on PS3), and NCAA Baseball 07

• Hockey - NHL 08 or NHL 2K8 depending on who you are

• Soccer - Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (still maybe the best game ever in the series)

The more alternative sports games or sports where there isn’t as much focus don’t quite get the same love, but there’s still something to play that’s decent. The problem at this moment is certain games are still transitioning to “next gen” and so some of the games are super rough — this includes NCAA Football 08 and Tiger Woods 08. FIFA was still bad as well, but I did enjoy the EA Champions League game (and it was the only “full” release of a Champions League game we’d get). Regardless, the “next generation” also gives us The Bigs and Skate to widen the library on our new HD consoles.

It’s cruel that we get the return of NBA Street and a 2K football game and then lose them all over again (in addition to most of the college games), but in the moment, this felt like a big year for the revival of sports video games.

#2) 2003

Headliners: WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain, NBA Street Vol. 2, Madden 04, ESPN NFL Football, SSX 3, Tiger Woods 2004, Tony Hawk’s Underground, NCAA Football 2004, ESPN NHL Hockey

Solid Games: MVP Baseball 2003, World Series Baseball 2K3, NFL Fever 2004, ESPN NBA Basketball, NBA Live 2004, High Heat Baseball 2004, World Soccer: Winning Eleven 7 International, FIFA 2004, Colin McRae Rally 04, NHL 04, NASCAR Thunder 04, All-Star Baseball 2004

With these final two years, you can flip a coin, but it comes down to what sports you prefer and what sort of games you prefer. I think 2003 is just slightly below the next pick below, but it’s impossible to go wrong with either of these years.

You’re basically picking from multiple games for any sport no matter what direction you look. We have reached peak PS2 domination as well with the 2K games now having made their way from Dreamcast over to PS2 (this is also the rebranding year where 2K just calls all their titles ESPN games). I can’t even cover all these games and give them their due, so I just have to hit the highlights:

-We have the best wrestling game of the generation with Here Comes the Pain.

-We have the definitive arcade basketball game of the generation with NBA Street Vol. 2.

-We have top 3 games in the Tony Hawk, SSX, All-Star Baseball, Madden, NFL 2K, NHL 2K, and NCAA Football series.

The downside if there is one is that we’re missing an undisputed MLB champion and there’s no boxing game that matters.

#1) 2004

Headliners: ESPN NFL 2K5, Madden 05, NFL Street 2, MVP Baseball 2004, ESPN NHL 2K5, Gran Turismo 4, ESPN NBA 2K5, NBA Live 2005, All-Star Baseball 2005, NASCAR 05: Chase for the Cup

Solid Games: NFL Street, Smackdown vs. Raw, Fight Night 2004, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, NHL 05, Winning Eleven 8, FIFA 2005, Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, NBA Ballers, ESPN Major League Baseball, ESPN College Hoops 2K5, NCAA March Madness 2005, Smash Court Tennis: Pro Tourney 2, Hot Shots Golf Fore!

This is such a stacked year that EA goes wild and releases NFL Street and NFL Street 2 within 11 months of each other (both releasing in 2004!) all while 2K solidifies itself by releasing banger after banger for the entire year. It’s not even worth pointing out how good both NFL 2K5 and Madden 05 are because it’s been discussed a million times, but obviously it’s just an embarrassment of riches for football fans this year. This is such an insane year that at least 3-5 games have been lost to time that would be certified game of the year selections during any other year from this era.

At this moment in 2004, both of the major companies are at their absolute zenith and we still have tons of other games to point to outside the “big two” if we still want something different. Like, sure we just had NBA Street Vol. 2 in 2003, but NBA Ballers is a very good arcade basketball game from Midway that comes out in 2004 as well.

You cannot point to a single weakness in this release lineup, and why I believe 2004 is the GOAT is because we now have All-Star Baseball 2005 plus MVP Baseball 2004 to nail that sport down. On top of that, Fight Night 2004 isn’t a special boxing game, but we at least have something to play during this year when that wasn’t the case in 2003.

In retrospect, clearly the play was finding a way to keep production costs at PS2-era levels while still giving us our sweet, sweet graphics that would come with the HD era. How that would have been possible is, uh, well, uh, I have no idea. But as a sports gamer, it’s obvious how much we lost with production and licensing costs going through the roof once we hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 era.

As I sit here in 2024, I can’t say that I would go back now and play any of these games from 2004 a ton, but its place in history is still cemented and won’t ever be forgotten.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase