The 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Ongoing Game

This year was full of major new releases like Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, and many more, but what do people do between those huge games? What holds the attention of players between the biggest releases of every month? For many, that's where the battle royales, the hero shooters, and the roguelites come into play. While these genres couldn't be more different from one another, what they have in common is that they house some of the best live-service games, the ones that keep on giving with new content updates, seasons, battle passes, and everything else players could hope for to keep them busy releasing years after the games themselves launch. These games are unlike any others that come and go like flashes in a pan, and for that reason, we've got the Best Ongoing Game accolade as part of the Golden Issue Awards to highlight the games that do their jobs better than all the rest.

One of the tricky parts with a category like Best Ongoing Game, however, is that the games on list like this don't change too often. "Ongoing Games" like these mean they're doing their jobs well and are hanging in there with other live-service contenders, but occasionally, new ones squeak into the lineup thanks to things like Cyberpunk 2077's continued updates and its Phantom Liberty DLC or Vampire Survivors' ability to contend with AAA games despite having a much smaller team behind it; but there can be only one champion.

And the winner for the 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Ongoing Game is…

Fortnite!

After beginning as Save the World and later evolving into a battle royale behemoth before becoming a pop culture sensation itself just like all of the icons and characters it houses within the game as skins, Fortnite managed to grow even beyond its already seemingly limitless boundaries this year. In addition to doing what it always has -- hosting new, themed seasons of content with various updates and additions to look forward to each time -- Fortnite has continued to amass crossover after crossover with more on the horizon as we move into next year. One of the game's biggest inclusions in 2023, for example, was the appearance of Eminem in Fortnite which happened just recently.

But all that has been business as usual for Fortnite. Aside from stellar updates and seasons that kept players engaged all year long, one of the biggest innovations Epic Games accomplished with Fortnite was its three new games within the game: LEGO Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, and Rocket Racing. The first is the culmination of the long-awaited partnership between LEGO and Fortnite that's, put simply, a LEGO-ified version of Minecraft housed within Fortnite, while the second is a Rock Band-like experience in Fortnite filled with fan-favorite songs, and the last of those is similar in nature Rocket League (Epic Games owns Rock Band creator Harmonix as well as Rocket League developer Psyonix). LEGO Fortnite has so far been the most successful of those in terms of how many people are playing it, but all three of them stretched the limits of what Fortnite is and what it can be.

It's more true for Fortnite more so than any other game right now that the battle royale game's universe isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so after seeing what 2023 held, Fortnite players should be excited at the prospect of what 2024 and beyond will offer.

The full list of nominees for ComicBook.com's Best Ongoing Game Award are as follows:

• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite — WINNER
• Overwatch 2
• Rocket League
• Vampire Survivors