The Game Awards nominees announced

There are the Grammy Awards, the Academy Awards, and of course, The Game Awards. Founded back in 2014, the latter “recognizes and upholds creative and technical excellence in the global video game industry,” and has announced this year’s nominees.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

While the winners are chosen by a voting jury of over 100 media and influencer outlets, anyone can go and vote and, at a later date, participate in the Players’ Voice bracket to pick the public’s favorite game of the year.

As far as AAA blockbusters are concerned, there are a few games on this list (as expected), however, there are quite a few surprises as well. Without further ado, let’s dive straight into the nominations for The Game Awards by category.

Games of the Year

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Rings (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)

Best Game Directions

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

Best Narrative

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

Best Art Direction

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

Best Score and Music

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

Best Audio Design

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

BestPerformance

• Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
• Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök
• Manon Gage, Immortality
• Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök

Games for Impact

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

Best Ongoing

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

Best Indies

• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monsters/Devolver Digital)
• Fluorescent White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Master (Sloclap)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)

BestMobile

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

Best Community Support

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

Innovation in Accessibility

• 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)

Best VR/AR

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

Best Action Games

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

Best Action/Adventure

• 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)

Best Role-Playing

• Elden Rings (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)

Best Fighting

• 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)
• Master (Sloclap)

BestFamily

• 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)

Best Sim/Strategy

• Dunes: 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)

Best Sports/Racing

• 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)

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)

Content Creator of the Year

• Karl Jacobs
• Ludwig
• Nibellions
• Nobru
• QTCinderella

Best Indie Debut

• Fluorescent White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
• Norco (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
• Vampire Survivors (poncle)

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 Adaptation

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

Best Esports Games

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valves)
• Dota 2 (Valves)
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• Rocket League (Psyonix)
• Valorant (Riot Games)

Best Esports Athlete

• Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Gen. G, LOL)
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (T1, LOL)
• Finn “karrigan” Andersen ( (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
• Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant)

Best Esports Team

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

Best Esports Coach

• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
• Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (LOUD, Valorant)
• Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FPX, Valorant)
• Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
• Go “Score” Dong-bin (Gen. G, LOL)

Best Esports Event

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

Not going to be able to make it to The Game Awards in person? You can tune in on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok Live, and more.

Will you be tuning in or voting for The Game Awards this year? Who do you hope wins? Let us know on social media by using the buttons below.

Last Updated on November 15, 2022.