The Game Awards, in its current iteration, has been going for 11 years now. The Geoff Keighley-fronted showcase is one of the biggest events of the year, and has seen dozens of awards given out over its tenure.
Ahead of this year’s show, we logged and categorized every single award given out at The Game Awards, and we’ve pulled out some of the most interesting facts and findings that we stumbled across in the process.
League of Legends Is The Only Game To Win Awards Across Four Different Years
League of Legends tends to go under the radar at The Game Awards. Its four total awards make it one of the most successful games of all time, putting it at the same level as Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Astro Bot.
Most interestingly, though, its four awards have all been won across different years, with the game picking up Best Esports Game gong in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024. It’s the only game to have won awards across four different shows. Overwatch was the original trendsetter, winning five awards across three years, including Game of the Year and two others in 2016, but League of Legends proved its longevity, winning in its fourth year, last year.
FromSoftware Is The Only Developer To Win The Top Prize Twice
This iteration of The Game Awards has crowned 14 different winners, but no developer has won the top prize more than once — except for FromSoftware. In 2019, the studio scooped the Game of the Year gong for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and in 2022, Elden Ring took the crown, cementing the studio as the only double winner.
Someone Asked George R.R. Martin To Sign A Copy Of Elden Ring, But He Was “So Confused”
He was probably confused that they asked him about something besides Winds of Winter.
As a publisher, Sony has won three Game of the Year awards, with its individual studios winning for God of War in 2018, The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020, and Astro Bot in 2024, but no developer has been more successful than FromSoft, at least regarding the top prize.
Nintendo Is The Game Awards’ Most Successful Developer, Sony Is The Most Successful Publisher
Speaking of successful publishers, Sony takes the crown. As a publisher, the company has won 31 awards since 2014 across a variety of categories, including the three Game of the Year awards listed above. Its most successful year was 2020, when The Last of Us Part 2 picked up seven individual awards.
As for developers, Nintendo is comfortably the most successful. The company has 22 individual awards from its development teams, including wins for games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario Odyssey.
If You Want To Win An Award, Make An Action Adventure Game
In terms of the most successful genre, there’s only one winner: Action Adventure. Ignoring all genre-specific awards (ie Action Adventure Game of the Year), games from the genre have won 44 different awards. Much of this is down to Sony’s commitment to the genre, with The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and God of War Ragnarok winning 18 awards between them.
RPG is historically the second-most-successful genre, winning 27 awards over the last 11 years, and Platformer is third, with 16 awards.
Seven Games Won The Top Award, But Weren’t The Most Successful Game Of The Night
You would think that being Game of the Year would make a game the best of that year, and therefore, it would win the most awards. That rarely happens, and in seven of the 11 years of The Game Awards, the Game of the Year winner won the same number of or fewer awards than another title.
Below, you can see the years in which the Game of the Year-winning game failed to win the most awards outright:
- 2014 Game of the Year: Dragon Age: Inquisition (2), Valiant Hearts (2), Destiny (2), Mario Kart 8 (2)
- 2015 Game of the Year: The Witcher 3 (2), Rocket League (2), Her Story (2), Metal Gear Solid V (2), Splatoon (2)
- 2017 Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (3), Cuphead (3), Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (3),
- 2018 Game of the Year: God of War (3), Red Dead Redemption 2 (4)
- 2019 Game of the Year: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2), Death Stranding (3), Disco Elysium (4)
- 2021 Game of the Year: It Takes Two (3), Forza Horizon 5 (3)
- 2022 Game of the Year: Elden Ring (4), God of War Ragnarok (6)
Cyberpunk 2077’s Only Award Win Was Three Years After The Game Was Released
To say Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch would be downplaying it. The PS4 and Xbox One versions were simply not fit to launch, and the game was laden with bugs on a level rarely ever seen. It may have broken all kinds of sales records and turned a profit on day one, but it was a mess. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t scoop any awards in the year it was first eligible, despite being nominated for two (Best Score and Music and Role-Playing Game of the Year).
Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer Creators Say Latest Beta Test “Exceeded All Expectations”
We’re edging closer to being able to play Cyberpunk with friends.
In the years that followed, CD Projekt Red turned things around, and Cyberpunk 2077 lived up to its promise. Three years later, it won its first Game Award. Rather contentiously, following the release of The Phantom Liberty DLC, Cyberpunk 2077 won 2023’s Best Ongoing Game award.
Disco Elysium Remains The Most Successful Indie Game
The Game Awards is pretty good at honoring indie games. There are now two dedicated categories (Best Indie Game and Best Debut Indie), and it’s not unheard of for indies to scoop up other awards, either. Disco Elysium is a prime example of this, grabbing a record four awards in 2019.
This total has yet to be matched in the six years since, with Cuphead and Balatro’s three the closest competitors. With Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 categorized as an indie game at this year’s ceremony, I can’t see Disco Elysium’s record standing for too much longer.
Cuphead Won As Many Awards As Breath Of The Wild In 2017
Speaking of Cuphead, one of the biggest surprises we found in our analysis is that Studio MDHR’s brutally difficult run-and-gun platformer won as many awards in 2017 as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
This isn’t meant to disparage Cuphead; it’s one of the best indie games of all time, but it feels like Breath of the Wild is the game. It’s the sixth-best-reviewed game in Metacritic’s history, with a score 11 points higher than Cuphead, so it feels like a bit of a travesty that it only walked away with three awards. And that segues me nicely into my following fact.
Pokemon Go And Valiant Hearts Have More Awards Than Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy 16, And Persona 5
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s three awards are a solid haul when compared to some other behemoth games. Games like Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy 16, Persona 5, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, some of arguably the greatest titles of all time, only managed a measly one award each.
Sega Is Right, There Is No Point Buying Persona Until The ‘Definitive Edition’ Comes Along
Turns out that releasing two versions of 100+ hour JRPGs isn’t a good business decision.
On the other side of the coin, Stray, Pokemon Go, and Valiant Hearts each have two awards. They’re not bad games; they’re just not of the caliber of the ones listed above – but they won more trophies.
Only One Actor Has Won Best Performance Twice, And It Was For The Same Character
Much like FromSoftware being the only developer to scoop up Game of the Year twice, only one actor has managed to claim the Best Performance award on more than one occasion, and it was for playing the same character.
In 2017, Melina Juergens won the Best Performance award for her portrayal of Senua in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Seven years later, she achieved the feat again, earning the award for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
- Location
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Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
- Dates
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December 12, 2024
