The much-anticipated year-end finale to the video gaming awards season for the year, The Game Awards 2023, is almost upon us. This means fans and critics alike have a chance to check out the various titles that left a mark across the year and vote for their favorites!
To take things a notch higher, the organizers, led by producer and host Geoff Keighley, organized a live stream on November 13. Over the 20-odd minutes broadcast, the game journalist announced the nominees for the prestigious awards show across over 30 categories, including Game of the Year.
Fan voting began immediately after this announcement and will remain open until the live show on Thursday, December 7, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, where the winners will be revealed. Those interested in viewing the list of nominees or voting for their choices across categories can head here.
The live broadcast of this special program for the upcoming The Game Awards 2023 on the official YouTube channel recorded 11K Hours Watched, 53K Peak Viewers, and 45K Average Viewers over an airtime of 15 minutes. The main category, Game of the Year 2023, saw the likes of Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Resident Evil 4 get he nod.
Here's a list of nominees in some major segments:
Game of the Year
- Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
- Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Best Game Direction
- Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2(Insomniac Games/SIE)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Best Independent Game
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
- Dave the Diver (MINTROCKET)
- Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
- Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio)
- Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)
Best Debut Indie Game
- Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
- Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
- Pizza Tower (Tour de Pizza)
- Venba (Visai Games)
- Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)
Best Mobile Game
- Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (Applibot/Square Enix)
- Honkai: Star Rail (HoYoverse)
- Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Sunblink Entertainment)
- Monster Hunter Now (Niantic/Capcom)
- Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver/Netflix)
Most Anticipated Game
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
- Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)
- Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco/Arika)
Content Creator of the Year
Best Esports Game
- Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)
- Dota 2 (Valve)
- League of Legends (Riot Games)
- PUBG Mobile (LightSpeed Studios/Tencent Games)
- Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Esports Athlete
- Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends)
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (CS:GO)
- Max “Demon1” Mazanov (Valorant)
- Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez (Call of Duty)
- Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (League of Legends)
- Phillip ”ImperialHal” Dosen (Apex Legends)
Best Esports Team
- Evil Geniuses (Valorant)
- Fnatic (Valorant)
- Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2)
- JD Gaming (League of Legends)
- Team Vitality (Counter-Strike)
Best Esports Event
- 2023 League of Legends World Championship
- Blast.tv Paris Major 2023
- EVO 2023
- The International Dota 2 Championships 2023
- Valorant Champions 2023
Digging a little deeper into the viewership numbers, there were a total of 234 channels that streamed this nomination event for a total watch time of 37K hours. English broadcasts took up a little over half this number, with Portuguese being the only other language to cross double digits on this chart.
Intriguingly, Spanish, despite having more channels streaming than its neighbor, could only grab 7% of the Hours Watched pie. Perhaps the fact that most of the prominent names from the community found on Twitch were not active in promoting this live stream, although they have played a massive part in the success of awards nights during previous editions and will likely do so this time as well.
Talking about older iterations, among the five events for which stats are available, last year's show was the most successful across metrics. What helped was an extra broadcast on Steam TV, where audiences flocked in droves as Valve was giving away a Steam Deck console among viewers almost every minute, meaning it notched the most Peak Viewers at 845.7K.
Whether there is any such partnership between the organizers and any streaming service this time remains to be seen, but what is for sure is that the function has a packed nominations list that might never be bettered, so the pressure to deliver a standout program and hit the high notes viewership-wise will be high. Whatever the case, fans are in for a night of high-octane competition where the winners, especially among video games, could build legacies for themselves the likes of which very few have done.
