3. Madden NFL 16

As the months have gone on, people have continued to customize Madden's Franchise mode more and more to their liking. Some will count this as a negative as it's a way of saying folks aren't happy with the default experience, and that's fair, but it also shows people want to get the most out of the game this year, which is progress. Everyone would love Madden more if customizing it was not such a chore, but all in all the fans still felt Madden deserved the third spot here. Having the strongest single-player version of Ultimate Team among the EA titles also helps to push Madden forward a bit in this category.

2. MLB 15 The Show

MLB The Show continues to deliver the most balanced single-player experience around. The Franchise mode is enhanced due to the "real minors" brought to you by the amazing OS Community, and the mode itself is very easy to customize and shape if you want to control every MLB team. Beyond that, Road to the Show continues to be addicting for many folks out there, and more than that, those same people seem to come back each season ready to put in hundreds more hours. Year-to-year saves also continue to be amazing. Simply put, The Show has lasting power, and that's a crucial element for any single-player sports experience.

1. NBA 2K16

NBA 2K wins out here, and like with a lot of things with 2K, it's in some part due to there just being so much to do. But I don't want to shortchange the franchise and say that's the main reason the game won as the massive overhaul to MyLeague and MyGM also have plenty to do with it. In addition, there's a superstar mode that goes from being a linear Spike Lee "joint" to then becoming more of a sandbox-like career mode after year one, which is wholly unique in the genre. So chalk it up to team relocation, or the arena builder or team branding, or the addition of summer league or even all of the above, but just know that NBA 2K16 is the Reader's Choice for Best Single-Player Experience of 2016.
 

NBA 2K16

Our top two choices as a staff were the same as the readers (The Show and NBA 2K), and so there's not much more I really need to say here. Between the amount of choices, customization options and just general depth to each of the single-player modes, NBA 2K16 gives you an experience that is almost intimidating to undertake because you don't know where to start first. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see what the 2K development team will focus on next as there's a good base here and they could go almost any direction. Bottom line, NBA 2K16 is the Staff's Choice for Best Single-Player Experience of 2016.