The Verge’s 2024 in review

The Verge art team was busy this year, creating illustrations, photographs, and interactive designs to match stories about underwater sea cables, competitive Excel, parental anxiety, AI companions, and so much more. Here’s a look back at 20 of our favorite projects from 2024, with comments from those of us who worked on the project.

Design by Cath Virginia

It’s been a bit of a rough year for PlayStation exclusives and the studios that make them. While The Final Shape was generally lauded as an excellent concluding chapter to Destiny 2’s current story arc, Bungie was faced with all kinds of setbacks including canceled projects and layoffs. Elsewhere, Sony’s Firewalk Studios launched Concord, unlaunched it, then closed permanently within the space of a few months after the hero shooter failed to gain traction in a glutted market.

That said, PlayStation still came through this year with a slate of excellent games that will hopefully demonstrate that there’s an appetite for more than just live-service shooters.

I still can’t quite believe that I’m using an Arm-powered Windows laptop every day. After more than a decade of trying to make Windows on Arm a reality, Microsoft and Qualcomm finally nailed it this year with Copilot Plus PCs. These new laptops have excellent battery life and great performance — and the app compatibility issues that have plagued Windows on Arm are mostly a thing of the past (as long as you’re not a gamer). Microsoft wanted 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” but I think it was very much the year of Windows on Arm. If 2024 was anything to go by, 2025 is going to be even bigger for Windows on Arm.

Microsoft set the stage for the 2024 year of Windows on Arm announcements in January at CES with promises of AI PCs and the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years. Laptop manufacturers started putting a Copilot key on keyboards early this year, providing quick access to Microsoft’s AI assistant. While the Copilot experience on Windows has gone through several confusing revisions, it’s still a key I accidentally press and then get frustrated when a Copilot window appears.

This holiday season is the swan song for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo told us as much when it said a long-awaited Switch successor would be announced by April 2025. But Nintendo thankfully didn’t get a case of senioritis as it looks to graduate to a Switch sequel, as 2024 had a litany of excellent titles come to the nearly eight-year-old console. So we’re taking a little look back at some of our favorite games on the Switch for 2024. One of the great things about this year’s offering of Switch titles is that they all should work on the follow-up to the Switch — since Nintendo confirmed its next generation will be backward-compatible. (And hopefully any performance issues of games on the current Switch will be resolved when playing them on the next model, if we’re so lucky.)

We all have to remain patient as we continue to wait for the Switch’s successor, but these games are without a doubt worthy of playing during your current Nintendo console’s final months in the limelight.

Even if it wasn’t the strongest year for Xbox exclusive games (and some of those exclusives had their issues), Game Pass was still an extremely good deal for console owners. Mostly, it’s the variety; the subscription service continues to offer a great mix of new blockbuster releases, along with smaller indie games and older titles to round out the package. This year had everything from Call of Duty’s big coming-out party on Game Pass to a stop-motion adventure game to an expansion to one of last year’s biggest RPGs.

Here are nine great games to check out if you’re a new subscriber or just looking for something new to play.

In 2024, we gamed like it was 1997. Games like Metaphor: ReFantazio, Astro Bot, and the solo-developed Balatro remixed genres of console generations past (or, in Balatro’s case, remixed the very old game of poker itself) to critical and commercial success, while Capcom was one of the most successful companies of the year supported by a healthy mix of titles across different genres. With the industry’s biggest publishers increasingly chasing massive, broadly appealing games meant to be played forever, it was heartening to see old formats come back with some new tricks. And these successes could provide the blueprint needed to pull the video game industry out of its current tailspin.

Persona developer Atlus has once again innovated on the turn-based RPG with Metaphor: ReFantazio. What makes Metaphor’s combat interesting in a way that’s hard to replicate with traditional turn-based RPGs is that Atlus has built a unique ability system powered by anticipation and anxiety. Characters have access to powerful summons, each with their own abilities, along with strengths and weaknesses that enemies also share. Hitting an enemy’s weakness or having your own exploited results in monumental shifts in the momentum of battle. Every attack becomes consequential, as you don’t know what will work against your foes or what they have to work against you.

2024 will go down as the year Netflix made its huge push into sports. It was the exclusive home for the “disgusting-but-can’t-look-away” hot dog eating contest between Joey Chestnut and his rival, Takeru Kobayashi. The streamer also broadcast the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match that would have been abysmally boring if not for the bloody women’s match right before the main event. Then there are the million-dollar deals Netflix struck with the WWE and NFL to bring even more live sports to the platform.

Thankfully, Netflix also added a healthy amount of original programming, movies, TV shows, anime, and documentaries that’ll be much easier to watch. So here’s a list of Netflix’s best shows and movies to watch in case you never get past the buffering icon.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset is an incredible piece of technology, but even Apple’s design and marketing magic hasn’t been enough to convince many people to don a VR headset for an entire day. Instead, people seem more willing to use discreet wearables like Bluetooth headphones, smartwatches, and products like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses — so Apple’s headset isn’t making the waves the company would have wanted.

Of course, an instant transformation of the computing landscape wasn’t exactly the point of the Vision Pro. Apple was clearly launching its headset for Apple enthusiasts, first adopters, and people who love VR. At a starting price of $3,499, the barrier of entry was just too high to expect the device to be a hit from the jump. Even CEO Tim Cook called it an “early-adopter product.”

In 2024, podcasts have gotten closer to becoming a video-first medium. Though video podcasts have been around a relatively long time, shows from The New York Times, NPR, and many other podcast networks that have been audio-only for years have recently started adding a video component in order to gain new listenership. In fact, Spotify, a major player in podcasts, is about to begin paying podcasters to bring videos to the platform.

And after years of producers trying to get audio shows to go viral on social media, podcasts are now dominating TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts after video producers realized they can just film the talent talking. Meanwhile, weekly podcasts are looking to attract younger audiences who grew up on YouTube. As a result, video producers are figuring out how to make podcasts, and audio producers are figuring out how to make videos.

The roguelike genre has turned from a relative niche into something much bigger. Roguelike games can be famously tough to crack into; generally, they have a high difficulty that means you’ll bang your head against a wall as you learn how to play the game, puzzle out what strategies work best in the procedurally generated levels, and figure out how to overcome tough enemies or challenges. 2024 showed that the genre wasn’t only a commercial force through hits like Hades II and Balatro, and also that a roguelike could be almost anything: from a poker variant to a flashy multiplayer action game.

Speaking of Balatro, it was undoubtedly one of, if not the, best games of the year. The game is supremely easy to pick up because of its roots in building traditional poker hands, but each round feels wildly different because of the clever and sometimes superpowered joker cards that can give you massive bonuses. The game is a perfect mix of skill, risk, and a little bit of luck, and it feels so good when you find a strategy that completely stacks the chips in your favor. I think I’ll be playing Balatro for years to come, especially with whatever’s cooking for the game’s upcoming major update. And now that the game is out on mobile, I can play wherever I want.

This year, Hulu officially became a part of Disney Plus, which means no more bouncing back and forth between the two apps if you’re subscribed to both. The two services had some pretty noteworthy releases this year, including several new additions to the Marvel and Star Wars lineups on Disney Plus, along with a variety of binge-worthy shows from Hulu.

Here are all the best shows released this year that you can stream on both platforms.

If nothing else, 2024 was the year Apple TV Plus firmly cemented itself as one of the best places to stream science fiction shows. This year, in particular, had a breadth of options, with sci-fi series ranging from cozy mysteries to old-fashioned noirs. Of course, there’s more to the streaming service than just sci-fi — which is where the likes of Pachinko and Disclaimer come in. If you’re looking for something new to watch on Apple TV Plus, here are a few great places to start.

This series stood out among Apple’s other sci-fi shows thanks to its dark tone. Constellation follows an astronaut named Jo (Noomi Rapace), who survives an evacuation of the International Space Station only to return to an Earth seemingly very different from the one she left. It’s the kind of show that leaves you guessing as to what is really real — and as the vibe turns even darker, that question becomes even harder to answer.

The year 2024 has been another very good one for wireless earbuds. We’ve reached a point where every tech giant is firing on all cylinders. Apple’s AirPods Pro, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are each fantastic in their own right and fairly comparable in the features they offer. Are there advantages depending on which you pick? Sure. Samsung’s new voice controls are super convenient. Google wins out on comfort. And Apple’s new hearing health features really level up what we expect from consumer earbuds. But in terms of everyday performance, they’re all within spitting distance of each other.

As for over-ear headphones, Sonos introduced its long-rumored Ace headphones this year. Their marquee trick, TV Audio Swap, is the ability to receive audio from a Sonos soundbar for private listening — a good example of a brand trying to muster a unique selling point in a competitive market, while Apple, Samsung, and Google are laser-focused on interplay within their own respective ecosystems. (Of course, Sonos’ headphones were all but forgotten in the avalanche of controversy brought on by the company’s overhauled mobile app.)

I’ve spent the past year covering every major phone launch in the US, and each one loudly declared the same thing: AI is here, and ours is the AI phone you’ve been waiting for. Each was followed by much applause and favorable stock price movement. But when I got those phones into my hands, the AI was underwhelming, to say the least.

The theory is that smartphones as we know them are evolving into something new: AI smartphones. An AI smartphone will be a new kind of device that doesn’t force you to interact with a grid of apps all day long; you’ll be able to ask it to order pizza or send an email just by using an AI-imbued voice assistant. You’ll be able to point your camera at a flyer for a show, have the AI check whether you’re free, and add it to your calendar. You’ll ask it about something a friend said to you — maybe in an email or a text, you’re not sure which — and it will go find the information for you.

Amazon’s Prime Video had a bunch of strong releases in 2024, ranging from a surprisingly great video game adaptation to a visually pleasing fantasy spinoff. There’s even an update to the raunchiest superhero show in streaming. It had plenty of other series worth watching, too — even with the pesky commercial breaks Prime Video started showing during shows and movies. Here’s our list of some of the best shows that came out on Prime Video this year.

It’s hard to find a television adaptation of a video game that stays true to the source material, but Prime Video’s Fallout does just that. The first eight episodes take place in the aftermath of a global nuclear disaster, and the show stars Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean, who emerges from Vault 33 — one of the many shelters for survivors — with a mission to track down her kidnapped father. As she traverses the postapocalyptic wasteland, she encounters Brotherhood of Steel squire Maximus (Aaron Moten) and a ghoul bounty hunter (Walton Goggins). Hijinks ensue.

When it comes to entertainment and education, we can choose from podcasts, videos, games, live performances, or books, one of the oldest and still most popular ways to learn something new or escape (at least temporarily) from today’s troubled world. We asked the staff of The Verge what their favorite reads were in 2024. Their answers ranged from fantasy and science fiction to histories of engineering and clothing to autobiographies, insights on body image, and more.

Read on, and see if there’s anything here that you want to check out during the holidays.

Despite Max’s pivot to purging films and TV shows from its programming library, the platform still has plenty of excellent new releases to check out during this year’s holiday season. Whether you’re into live-action dramas, sci-fi spectacles, or animated epics, the streamer has a little bit of everything to offer. Naturally, we’ve put together a handy list of some of our favorites we think you might get a kick out of.

It sounded like Warner Bros. and DC were having a laugh when they started referring to The Penguin’s central mobster as “Oz Cobb,” as if that has ever been that character’s name. It also seemed odd that the studios were bullish about airing a series spun off from Matt Reeves’ The Batman when all signs have suggested that those characters won’t make it into James Gunn’s new universe of DC films. Somehow, though, The Penguin proved to be a surprisingly compelling return to Gotham as it explored the inner workings of Oz Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) mind and reframed him as a twisted underdog fighting to keep up with fellow crimelord Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti).

The smart home in 2024 was a year for regrouping. After the initial excitement surrounding the new interoperability standard Matter — which is trying to make the smart home simpler and easier to use by allowing connected devices to work with any platform — momentum has stalled. As companies adjust to the reality that Matter is going to take time to, well, matter, 2024 became a year of consolidation, with more focus on software (especially around generative AI) than hardware. However, one category bucked this trend: smart door locks.

The past 12 months have been a stellar period for smart front door hardware, and 2025 looks set to be even better. Smart locks have seen more innovation in 2024 than almost any other category in the smart home. Lockly launched the first facial recognition lock, Philips introduced the first palm print lock, and ADT partnered with Google Nest and Yale to create a system that unlocks your door and disarms your security system using facial recognition.

It was a bit of a weird year for Apple’s subscription gaming service. 2024 saw very few notable exclusives launch on Apple Arcade; instead, the service was fleshed out with a number of big games that you can already play on other platforms. It hasn’t been great for showcasing what makes Apple Arcade unique, but on the other hand, it’s hard to complain too much when it means your subscription now includes Balatro and Vampire Survivors. Here’s the best of what came out this year.

This poker game has been an unexpected hit ever since it launched on PC and consoles at the beginning of the year. It’s sort of like a solo version of poker, only with the gameplay loop of a roguelike, which means that you’ll be collecting rare joker cards to augment your hands as you create a deck capable of turning out absolutely absurd scores. It takes a moment for it to click, but Balatro is particularly well suited to mobile, where you can squeeze in a few quick rounds wherever you are… or accidentally let a few hours go by while you try to complete a run.

When you say “wearables,” people generally think of smartwatches. But 2024 was a relatively quiet year for smartwatches, during which iterative updates reigned supreme. That happens in a maturing category. In exchange for polished products, you lose out on the weird frenetic energy — and sometimes ludicrously bad ideas — found when people are trying to figure out how to make a nascent gadget category work. Thankfully, it seems that energy is starting to bubble up with smart rings.

Smart rings are not new, but in 2024, there was a sort of renaissance for the category. I had an inkling that might be the case back in January, when several smart rings littered the CES show floor. And then Samsung kicked the door wide open in February by announcing the long-rumored Galaxy Ring. Samsung is a major player in the smartwatch space. For them to branch out into an entirely new wearable category? That’s big. It propels what’s thus far been a niche form factor into the mainstream.

The Steam Deck gets better every year, and 2024 was no exception. It’s been my primary gaming device ever since I became a parent, and I love being able to access the humongous library of games available on Steam from wherever I want, whether it’s at home or while the baby is taking a nap at grandma’s house. Valve keeps adding great features via software updates, too, like game recording.

If you’re just setting up a Steam Deck for the first time — perhaps you’re lucky enough to get one of the limited-edition white models — or you’re dusting off your Deck after a little break, I’ve put together some recommendations of great games from this year, along with one update to a classic.

If you had to pick a social network winner, it’s probably Threads. Two years ago, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and announced his intention to ruin it forever, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw an opportunity to build a text-first social network. Now, barely 18 months after its launch, Threads has more than 300 million users and has been adding a million more every day.

But Threads isn’t Twitter, and it’s never going to be. Twitter was never the biggest or most successful social network — far from it — but Twitter was at the absolute epicenter of culture for years. It was where politicians went to talk to their constituents and emergency services went to tell people what was happening. It was where newsmakers dropped their scoops first. It was, by a mile, the place you were most likely to have your message actually read — or even replied to! — by an A-list celebrity or your favorite brand. It was a bad business and a frequently badly run company, but Twitter was the most right now place on the internet.