On the night of December 9, Los Angeles hosted the 9th annual awarding ceremony of the prestigious game award The Game Awards (an analogue of “Oscar” in the world of cinema). We will have a separate article about the main trailers and game announcements from the presentation, and here we will briefly summarize and tell who won at The Game Awards 2022.

In general, there were no surprises – most of the awards were shared between the two main favorites of the current race: Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök. The main prize in the nomination “The best game of the year” was won by Elden Ring. In addition to the main award, the FromSoftware and Bandai Namco project received three additional awards – for direction, visual style and best RPG.

As for God of War Ragnarök, Santa Monica Studio’s project became the absolute leader in the number of awards at The Game Awards 2022. It won in six categories, including “Best Story” and “Best Action-Adventure Game.”

Horizon Forbidden West, which was up for seven awards, won none (probably God of War Ragnarök blew the limit). Stray and Final Fantasy XIV have two awards each.

Course

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

The best mobile game of 2022 was the Marvel Snap card game by Ben Broad (one of the authors of Hearthstone).

In the “Best Game of the Year” category: Player’s Voice – the only TGA nomination where the winner is determined by an absolute majority of user votes – Genshin Impact won. The day before, the final round of voting saw Genshin and Sonic Frontiers fans go head-to-head, with mutual insults on social media and vote rigging using bots and voting bypasses. However, the fans of Sonic finally gave in to the visa from the club of fans of the Chinese “gacha” game. During the announcement of the winner at the ceremony, Jeff Kiely noted that the organizers had counted all the bot votes.

Complete list of 9th Annual The Game Awards nominees and winners by category (winners in bold)

Game of the year

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

The voice of gamers

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarök
• Stray
• Genshin Impact
• Sonic Frontiers

The best direction

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

The best story

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)

Best visual style

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

The best soundtrack and music

• Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
• Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
• Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
• Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

The best soundtrack

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)

Best acting

• Ashley Birch (Eloy in Horizon Forbidden West)
• Charlotte McBurney (Amicia in A Plague Tale: Requiem)
• Christopher Judge (Kratos in God of War Ragnarök)
• Manon Gage (Marissa in Immortality)
• Sunny Suljic (Atreus in God of War Ragnarök)

Games for Impact nomination (games with important social implications)

• A Memoir Blue (Cloisters Interactive/Annapurna)
• As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
• Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
• Endling – Extinction is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
• Hindsight (Team Hindsight/Annapurna)
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)

The best service game

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

The best indie game ever

• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Sifu (Sloclap)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

The best debut among indie games

• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
• NORCO (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)
• Vampire Survivors (poncle)

The best community support

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

The best mobile game

• Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed & Quantum/Respawn/EA)
• Diablo Immortal (Blizzard/NetEase)
• Genshin Impact (HoYovese)
• MARVEL SNAP (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse)
• Tower of Fantasy (Hotta Studio/Perfect World/Level Infinite)

The best game for virtual/augmented reality

• After the Fall (Vertigo Games)
• Among Us VR (Schell Games/InnerSloth)
• BONELAB (Stress Level Zero)
• Moss: Book II (Polyarc)
• Red Matter 2 (Vertical Robot)

The best action movie

• Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Sifu (Sloclap)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

The best action adventure game

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

The best role-playing game

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• Live a Live (Square Enix/Nintendo)
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCI)
• Triangle Strategy (Artdink/Square Enix)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

The best fighting game

• DNF Duel (Arc System Works/EIGHTING/NEOPLE/NEXON)
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (CyberConnect 2 Co. Ltd/Bandai Namco)
• The King of Fighters XV (SNK/Plaion)
• MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
• Sifu (Sloclap)

The best family game

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land (HAL Laboratory / Nintendo)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Traveller’s Tales/WB Games)
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
• Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

The best strategy or simulator

• Dune: Spice Wars (Shiro Games/Funcom)
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
• Total War: WARHAMMER III (Creative Assembly/Sega)
• Two Point Campus (Two Point Studios/Sega)
• Victoria 3 (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox Interactive)

The best sports or racing game

• F1 22 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
• FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver/Romania/EA Sports)
• NBA 2K23 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
• OlliOlli World (Roll 7/Private Division)

The best multiplayer

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
• Overwatch 2 (Blizzard)
• Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

The most anticipated game

• FINAL FANTASY XVI (Square Enix)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software/WB Games)
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Streamer / Content Creator

• Karl Jacobs
• Ludwig
• Nibellion
• Nobru
• QTCinderella

The best adaptation

• Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix)
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger/CD Projekt, Netflix)
• The Cuphead Show! (Studio MDHR/King Features Syndicate/Netflix)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group/Paramount Pictures)
• Uncharted (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)

Award for Innovation in Accessibility for People with Disabilities

• As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
• The Last Of Us Part I (Naughty Dog/SIE)
• The Quarry (Supermassive Games/2K)

The best eSports game

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
• DOTA 2 (Valve)
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• Rocket League (Psyonix)
• VALORANT (Riot Games)

The best eSportsman

• Ji Hoon “Chovy” Chovy
• Lee Sun “Faker” Heck
• Finn “Karrigan” Andersen
• Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostylov
• Jacob “Yay” Whitaker

The best esports team

• DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
• FaZe Clan (CS:GO)
• Gen.G (League of Legends)
• LA Thieves (Call of Duty)
• LOUD (Valorant)

The best eSports trainer

• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi
• Mateus “bzkA” Tarasconi
• Eric “d00mbr0s” Sandgren
• Robert “Robban” Dahlstrom
• Go “Score” Dong Bin

The best eSports event

• EVO 2022
• 2022 League of Legends World Championship
• PGL Major Antwerp 2022
• The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
• VALORANT Champions 2022