Wccftech’s Best Shooter Games of 2024 – Fun Blasts for Everyone

2024 was a pretty damn good year for fans of shooter games. Not the best we can recall, granted, especially with the absence of big IPs like Halo and Battlefield, but it still offered lots of fun through various triple-A titles that mostly delivered on their promise, arguably surpassing 2023 when it comes to this genre's output.

All the titles we picked (except STALKER 2) offer some kind of online feature, which isn't surprising given how shooter games and multiplayer go hand in hand. Most of them are also set in science fiction/post-apocalyptic worlds, with the exception of Call of Duty. Without further ado, here's our shortlist of the best five shooters released in 2024, ordered by release date. Stay tuned for all the other genres, as usual.

Helldivers II (6/10)

The year of shooter games fans started with a bang thanks to Arrowhead's Helldivers II. Granted, the game didn't get a high score at launch on Wccftech from reviewer Ule Lopez, mostly due to technical issues. However, Helldivers II was a smash hit when it came to sales. By May, it had surpassed 12 million copies sold across PC and PlayStation 5, becoming the fastest-selling game Sony has ever published. It might have very well singlehandedly persuaded Sony to always ship live service games day and date on PC, too.

The active user base fluctuated widely throughout 2024, depending on the patches, although an update in September brought a resurgence of activity. Helldivers II also recently won Game of the Year at the TIGA Awards.

Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 (7/10)

Saber Interactive's Space Marine 2 is another game that didn't review so well on Wccftech, getting just a seven out of ten from reviewer Chris Wray. However, it was a smash hit among fans. Just one day after the official launch, the game had already sold two million units. Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 performed especially well in Europe, where it was the second best-selling new launch of the year (before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6). By late November, Space Marine 2 had broken through the five-million milestone. With a fresh update just released and many more to come (including planned DLCs), this long-awaited third-person shooter sequel will surely entertain fans well beyond 2024.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (8.8/10)

The Call of Duty franchise wasn't in a great state following the releases of Modern Warfare II and III. Neither of the games released in 2022 and 2023 really hit the mark among the Call of Duty community, but this year, Treyarch restored CoD to the throne of first-person shooter games with Black Ops 6. In Wccftech's review, Kai Tatsumoto wrote:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 represents a proper return to form, with Treyarch taking the helm in development once more. This is probably as definitive a Call of Duty title has been in years, with a package that executes well across all three pillars of Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. While the narrative doesn’t hold up to the spy thriller premise in the lead-up to launch, the online package rounds out the experience well.

Activision and Microsoft have boasted that it is the biggest Call of Duty game ever in terms of total players, hours played, and matches, though that was kind of a given with its availability through Game Pass.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl (8/10)

The only title on this shooter games list focused solely on single-player, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl carried the massive hype inevitably attached to its long and troubled development history. Thankfully, Ukrainian developer GSC Game World shipped a game that, despite its bugs and shortcomings, largely maintained its promise of providing a completely unique experience. Here's an excerpt from my review:

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a worthy successor of the original in every regard, good and bad. The vision is the same: an uncompromising game that will often frustrate you, but also offers a unique experience that can hardly be found anywhere else. It's the classic example where the total is more than the mere sum of its parts. Bugs and balance issues are still very much an issue, but they shouldn't stand in your way of playing, especially if you're willing to wait a while for developers and modders to fix them.

The team is already preparing a lot of fixes and improvements, and they still have to release the mod tools, the multiplayer, and DLCs.

Marvel Rivals

Hero shooter games haven't exactly thrived lately. Concord was arguably one of the year's biggest flops, being closed just two weeks after its launch, Sony having reportedly spent a $400 million budget for nothing. Overwatch 2 isn't super healthy, either, at least compared to the original.

In this context, Marvel Rivals from NetEase Games looked like it might struggle, especially as it appeared very much like a clone of Blizzard's game ahead of launch. The Marvel franchise also didn't help big triple-A releases such as Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

However, Rivals defied expectations and gained the appreciation of many gamers, on Steam and elsewhere. Just last week, the developers announced that over 20 million users have played Marvel Rivals so far, and there's a long list of updates and new heroes planned for the game.

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Honorable Mentions

Here's a few more shooter games released in 2024 that you should consider in case our best five don't tickle your fancy:

• The First Descendant
• Starship Troopers: Extermination
• MechWarrior 5: Clans
• Zero Hour