As 2021 draws to a close, Google Play has announced its regional ranking for the best games this year. It’s worth noting that Google has expanded its candidate pool to include games for tablets, Google TV, and Wear OS.
In North America, Hong Kong, and Taiwan regions, the awards for Game of the Year were all won by games developed by Chinese studios, and these games also can be seen in the charts of many other regions.
Game of the Year winner of the Taiwan region is NetEase's mobile card game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.
As an adaptation of a classic IP, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened has received over 23,000 reviews and an outstanding score of 4.2 on Google Play.
While the gameplay is similar to that of Clash Royale, which was popular a few years ago, its cards and social system apply some of the settings of the original novel in a proper way, and given the IP's huge fan base, it's not surprising that the game becomes so overwhelmingly popular.
Game of the Year for the Greater Hong Kong region is Romance of the Three Kingdoms Tatcis.
In addition to the Hong Kong region, Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Grand Strategy has also won the "Best Battle Game" and "Most Popular Game" awards in Taiwan and Singapore. As a strategy mobile game, the game took aim at overseas markets at the beginning of the year and became a top-grossing game in places like South Korea and Singapore.
As for the North American market, the most influential region, the best game award belongs to Pokémon UNITE, which is made by Tencent's TiMi Studio Group.
In his acceptance speech, the game’s producer Masaaki Hoshino said, "We tried very hard to take the best parts of MOBA games to create the new game, but I am not sure if it will be well received by the global audience."
The only exception to this conquest is in Japan. To Japanese gamers, the crown of the best game of 2021 belongs solely to Pretty Derby.
