The Game Award for Game of the Year

• 1. Introduction

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  The Game Award for Game of the Year is the last trophy handed out at The Game Awards, and it is widely considered the ceremony's most prestigious honor. Every other category builds toward this one announcement. The award goes to the video game judged to deliver the best experience across creative and technical fields. That sounds like a simple standard, but it raises real questions. Who decides which games earn a place on the shortlist? How much does the public's voice count against that of professional outlets? Why do some celebrated releases miss the year people remember them for? And which companies keep coming close without ever taking the prize home? The answers say a lot about how the video game industry chooses to honor its own.

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• 2. Jury And Public

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  More than 100 video game media and influencer outlets form the voting jury, and each was selected for its work in critically evaluating games. Every outlet completes an unranked ballot that lists its top five choices. The games that appear on the most ballots become the nominees. The category carried five nominees until 2018, when it grew to six. After the shortlist is set, the winner comes from a combined vote. The jury accounts for 90 percent of it, and public voting accounts for the remaining 10 percent. Fans cast votes through the official website and through social platforms such as Discord, Facebook, and Twitter. In China, fan voting runs through Bilibili instead. The jury's ballots are due in early November, and that date quietly decides which games get considered at all.

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• 3. The November Cutoff

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  A game released before a certain date in November, shortly before the ceremony, is eligible for that year's award. Anything that arrives after the cutoff waits for the following year. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, released in 2018, collected its nominations at the Game Awards 2019 for exactly this reason. The gap between the early November ballot deadline and the mid-to-late November cutoff creates a blind spot. Games released inside that window are often overlooked. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order missed out in both 2019 and 2020. In 2020, Demon's Souls and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales were caught the same way. The rules also bend in a few directions. Early access games available before the cutoff are eligible, and so are live service games regardless of their release year. Among Us, released in 2018, earned several nominations in 2020. Once the nominees are known, attention turns to the stage, where the winner is revealed.

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• 4. Moment On Stage

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  Since 2017, the Game Awards Orchestra has played a medley of the scores from each nominee just before the winner is named. Lorne Balfe conducts it. The trophy is traditionally accepted by the winning game's director or by an executive from the studio. In 2014, the first award went to Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it was accepted by executive producer Mark Darrah and BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn. Host and producer Geoff Keighley presented the award at the first four ceremonies. After that, the job often passed to directors of earlier winners. Jeff Kaplan, lead director of 2016 winner Overwatch, presented in 2018. Neil Druckmann, creative director of 2020 winner The Last of Us Part II, followed in 2021. Josef Fares of It Takes Two presented in 2022, Swen Vincke of Baldur's Gate 3 in 2024, and Nicolas Doucet of Astro Bot in 2025. Celebrity guests have also taken the stage, including Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez in 2019, Christopher Nolan in 2020, and Timothée Chalamet in 2023.

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• 5. The Winners

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  The first winner, in 2014, was Dragon Age: Inquisition from BioWare, published by Electronic Arts. In 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from CD Projekt Red took the award, and Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch won in 2016. Nintendo EPD's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won in 2017, and Santa Monica Studio's God of War won in 2018. FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, published by Activision, won in 2019. Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II won in 2020, followed by Hazelight Studios' It Takes Two in 2021. Elden Ring took the 2022 award, and Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 took the 2023 award. Team Asobi's Astro Bot won in 2024. The most recent winner is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, made by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. It is the only title on that list published by Kepler Interactive.

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• 6. Records And Near Misses

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  Sony Interactive Entertainment holds the record for nominations among publishers and has won three times. Nintendo has collected 11 nominations as a publisher but only one win. FromSoftware is the only developer with more than one win, with two victories from five nominations. Capcom and Bethesda Softworks are the most nominated companies without a win, each with four. Insomniac Games has three nominations and no wins. Blizzard Entertainment, Naughty Dog, and Santa Monica Studio each have two nominations and one win. Among developers, Nintendo EPD leads with seven nominations and one win. Franchises tell a similar story. Resident Evil has been nominated three times without winning, while Elden Ring has two nominations and one win. Kojima Productions has three nominations and no win. The most recent of those came in 2025, when Death Stranding 2: On the Beach stood among the nominees.

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