My five favourite games of each year, starting at 1991 since I'm not as familiar with most years prior to it. Formatting is (from left to right) my pick for game of the year, runner up, #3, #4 and #5. Pretty much every row's subject to change to some extent as I play more and more games; I wish we could retroactively edit our GOTY picks on here because of that, but hey ho.

Some other tidbits and stray thoughts:
- 1996 right through to 2009 is pretty much all pure gold, my single favourite year being 2005. Apart from those, 1994, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2022 also jump out to me as particularly strong years for games.
- Although I think it was also good, the way everyone wanked off 2023 struck me as kind of odd. I didn't find it to be hugely better than the rest of the 2020s so far, which I reckon have so far all been decent at worst.
- In contrast, I found 2016 and 2018 relatively grim, but that could change as I play more games from those years. I find that most instances of writing off an entire year's worth of stuff can be pinned down to not looking hard enough for stuff that appeals to you, so I try to be mindful of avoiding that.
- The row of games that’s consumed the most hours of my life total is probably 2010.
- I’ve included some rereleases in place of the original if they’re A) generally considered to be the definitive version of the game and B) released not long after. DMC3SE, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, M&B Warband, etc.
- Uppa Zoo Tycoon. Planet Zoo's also good, but I'd need to spend more time with it before I could slap it on here without feeling like a poser.