2016 Reader's Choice Sports Game of the Year

The OS Reader’s Sports Game of the Year has been a fun award to hand out every year because it represents the game OS’ers think is the absolute best they’ve played over the last year. In short, its a people’s choice award to sports game developers for a job well done.

As with the other categories we’ll list off the top vote getters and talk about each after the jump. Before you do that, be sure to visit our YouTube Channel and subscribe to us as we prepare a 2017 full of fun content!

Sports Game of the Year

1. MLB The Show 16 (29.77%)
2. NBA 2K17 (25.08%)
3. Madden NFL 17 (14.38%)
4. PES 17 (6.69%)

Well there you have it. NBA 2K has dominated this category for a few years but was finally unseated by MLB The Show 16 by a relatively narrow margin. That takes nothing away from either game, as both were stellar efforts this year which, combined, garnered over half of the reader vote.

The Show probably broke through as the winner because it had stellar gameplay (good enough to win the reader’s Best Gameplay award), and the rest of everything it did was at least good.

NBA 2K17 probably took a step back and got the silver this year simply because the innovation slowed down a bit this year versus prior years — which eventually had to happen simply because the series has done so much over the years. There are some rising gameplay quibbles within the community as well.

In a relatively distant third was Madden NFL 17. Madden took home the bronze because it also does a lot of good throughout the game. The gameplay is the best we’ve seen in football gaming ever and the rest of the package has really made strides to get on the level of its sports gaming peers.

Coming in fourth was PES 2017. Given the amount of support for PES, the fact the game finished ahead of so many other sports games is both surprising and fun. PES’ gameplay is excellent, and the rest of the game offers enough to keep you busy for a long time. PES 2017 was easily the best the series has been since jumping to this generation of consoles.

So what do you think? Do you agree with the readers’ that MLB The Show 16 was the best sports game of 2016? Sound off in the comments!