The Best Games Of 2023 Weren’t Games At All – They Were DLC

Dead Cells Dracula's Crypt

If you can ignore the mass layoffs throughout the industry, 2023 was a great year for games. A terrible year for the people who made those games, but the games that did manage to get out the door were utterly fantastic.

There will be many lists published this week about the best games that came out in 2023 – heck, we at GLHF have dozens of articles in the works about just that – but I wanted to do something a little bit different. I put to you that the very best games of 2023 weren’t games at all. No, the best games of 2023 were DLC.

Related: Telltale Games Reportedly Laid Off “Most” The Wolf Among Us 2 Staff

A bunch of games got really fantastic DLC expansions throughout the year. Some were paid, some were free, but most of them were phenomenal. Having played a lot of these, we thought we’d put our heads together and come up with a list of the best DLC of 2023.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

There hasn’t been a new Castlevania game in quite some time, but Dead Cells developer Motion Twin was lucky enough to partner up with Konami to create an expansion for the popular roguelike game. And goodness me, it was phenomenal. I’d never played Dead Cells before the release of Return to Castlevania, but since I played it for review in March, I haven’t stopped playing it. I even bought the game – and the Castlevania DLC – again on Switch after reviewing it on PC. It’s a phenomenal game with incredible DLC. Please play it.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is my favorite Nintendo Switch game, as part of my favorite JRPG series. It made me sob like a child when I played it, multiple times, but it didn’t connect to previous games. That is, until its expansion, Future Redeemed, was released. It brought back the protagonists of Xenoblade 1 and 2, and set up the story for the somewhat confusing ending (and beginning) for Xenoblade 3. It was the culmination of a decade of storytelling, and it wrapped the whole thing up perfectly.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet are the best Pokémon games to date… if you ignore all the things that make them frustrating, like bugs and performance issues. The story, though, was fantastic, and the games’ two waves of DLC delivered a similarly fantastic story. The second wave of DLC in particular, The Indigo Disk, was wonderful, and introduced a brand-new elite four with connections to previous generations, all set within a Unovan school. It’s a great addition to a nominally great game.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Look, there’s no denying that Cyperpunk 2077 launched in a very rough state. It was even pulled from the PS4 digital store for its terrible performance and bugs. But in the years since, CD Projekt Red has set to work rebuilding and reworking the game. It culminated in the release of Phantom Liberty, a paid expansion exclusive to next-gen consoles that by all accounts is pretty dang great. I’ll be honest, I haven’t played it, but I do know it has Idris Elba in it, and he’s great.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla

One of the later additions to this list, the excellent God of War Ragnarok got a Valhalla expansion that was entirely free. Sony undersold it big time, too — not only is it a roguelite expansion with almost endless gameplay opportunities, it’s also an epilogue to the story. These kinds of huge additions usually cost a pretty penny, so getting it entirely for free is absolutely wild.

Crusader Kings 3: Tours & Tournaments

Crusader Kings 3 is a very dense game, but if you can find a way to wrap your head around it, you can have a lot of fun. In May, the second of quite a few expansions came out for the game, Tours & Tournaments, and it was an absolute blast. It lets you set up jousting tournaments, festivals, and more, and even lets you use those tournaments and festivals to knock off troublesome family members. Ah Crusader Kings, never change.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC

Nintendo isn’t exactly a stranger to DLC, but it’s certainly not as common for the major publisher as it is for others. It was surprising, then, that Nintendo started introducing new DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a Switch port of a now 10-year-old game. The DLC effectively doubled the amount of tracks in the game with six waves of content, and the final waves, released this year, even added new playable characters. It’s pretty cheap, too, and is even free if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscriber. A wonderful end to the best game in the series.