Skip to main content

The Game Awards 2022: Here’s the complete list of winners

Elden Ring was crowned Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022 on Thursday night. It beat out God of War Ragnarok, which had garnered 10 nominations, the most for any game. God of War Ragnarok ended up with most wins, however, with six to Elden Ring‘s four.

Following is a complete list of winners:

Recommended Videos

Game of the Year

  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • WINNER: Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Stray
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Players’ Voice

  • Sonic Frontiers
  • WINNER: Genshin Impact
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Elden Ring
  • Stray

Best Game Direction

  • WINNER: Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Immortality
  • Stray

Best Narrative

  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • Elden Ring
  • WINNER: God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Immortality

Best Art Direction

  • WINNER: Elden Ring
  • God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Scorn
  • Stray

Best Score and Music

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

Best Audio Design

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  • Elden Ring
  • WINNER: God of War Ragnarok
  • Gran Turismo 7
  • Horizon Forbidden West

Best Performance

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

Games for Impact

  • A Memoir Blue
  • WINNER: As Dusk Falls
  • Citizen Sleeper
  • Endling: Extinction is Forever
  • Hindsight
  • I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Best Ongoing Game

  • Apex Legends
  • Destiny 2
  • WINNER: Final Fantasy XIV
  • Fortnite
  • Genshin Impact

Best Indie

  • Cult of the Lamb
  • Neon White
  • Sifu
  • WINNER: Stray
  • Tunic

Best Debut Indie

  • Neon White
  • Norco
  • WINNER: Stray
  • Tunic
  • Vampire Survivors

Best Community Support

  • Apex Legends
  • Destiny 2
  • WINNER: Final Fantasy XIV
  • Fortnite
  • No Man’s Sky

Best Mobile

  • Apex Legends Mobile
  • Diablo Immortal
  • Genshin Impact
  • WINNER: Marvel Snap
  • Tower of Fantasy

Best AR/VR

  • After the Fall
  • Among Us VR
  • Bonelab
  • WINNER: Moss: Book II
  • Red Matter 2

Best Action

  • WINNER: Bayonetta 3
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  • Neon White
  • Sifu
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Best Action/Adventure

  • A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • WINNER: God of War Ragnarok
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Stray
  • Tunic

Best Role Playing

  • WINNER: Elden Ring
  • Live a Live
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus
  • Triangle Strategy
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Fighting

  • DNF Duel
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
  • The King of Fighters XV
  • WINNER: MultiVersus
  • Sifu

Best Family

  • WINNER: Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  • Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
  • Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
  • Nintendo Switch Sports
  • Splatoon 3

Best Sim/Strategy

  • Dune: Spice Wars
  • WINNER: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
  • Total War: Warhammer III
  • Two Point Campus
  • Victoria 3

Best Sports/Racing

  • F1 22
  • FIFA 23
  • NBA 2K23
  • WINNER: Gran Turismo 7
  • OlliOlli World

Best Multiplayer

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  • MultiVersus
  • Overwatch 2
  • WINNER: Splatoon 3
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Most Anticipated

  • Final Fantasy XVI
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Starfield
  • WINNER: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Content Creator of the Year

  • Karl Jacobs
  • WINNER: Ludwig
  • Nibellion
  • Nobru
  • QTCinderella

Best Adaptation

  • WINNER: Arcane: League of Legends
  • Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
  • The Cuphead Show!
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Uncharted

Innovation in Accessibility

  • As Dusk Falls
  • WINNER: God of War Ragnarok
  • Return to Monkey Island
  • The Last Of Us Part I
  • The Quarry

Best Esports Game

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  • DOTA 2
  • League of Legends
  • Rocket League
  • WINNER: Valorant

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)
  • WINNER: 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)
  • WINNER: LOUD (Valorant)

Best Esports Coach

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

Best Esports Event

  • EVO 2022
  • WINNER: 2022 League of Legends World Championship
  • PGL Major Antwerp 2022
  • The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
  • Valorant Champions 2022
Topics
Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…
2022 was excellent for sports games, depending where you looked
The cursed golfer, hitting his shot surrounded by citizens of purgatory

Sports games are one of the most ubiquitous genres in gaming, as NBA 2K, Madden, and FIFA top sales charts every year. These franchises also happen to be some of gaming's most stagnant as their developers and publishers tend to focus on minor tweaks and changes year-over-year rather than significant innovations. The disappointment of games like Madden NFL 23 gives the genre a bad rap, but 2022 was actually one of the best years for sports games in a while. That's thanks to games that were willing to get weird.
Of course, the multi-million dollar mainstay sports franchises aren't going anywhere. That said, games like OlliOlli World, Rollerdrome Cursed to Golf, Windjammers 2, Roller Champions, What the Bat? and even Nintendo Switch Sports pushed the limits of what the genre can do. Sports inherently translate into solid video games, but this year highlighted how those games can go a step beyond, becoming kookier than what's possible in reality. That helped breathe some life into an otherwise stale genre.
Sports games get weird
When looking back at 2022, there are a lot of sports games worth calling out outside of the usual suspects. Nintendo Switch Sports is the hallmark casual sports game from this year, giving people an accessible and motion-control-based way to play golf, badminton, tennis, bowling, chambara, soccer, and volleyball with Nintendo's signature first-party visual flair. Though that was one of the more high-profile twists of the genre, indie developers led the charge, allowing the sports genre to shine this year.

Roll7's OlliOlli World, for instance, is one of my favorite games of the year. Skateboarding games have been a sports gaming mainstay since the 90s, but OlliOlli World realizes that formula in a way that's as fulfilling to play as Sonic the Hedgehog's best games. At its best, OlliOlli World is a colorful, fast-paced 2D platformer where each level has multiple paths that accommodate various player skill levels.
It's not trying to have accurate physics or recreate iconic real-world locations. Instead, it crafts its own vibrant fantasy world where everything is based on skateboarding, and the gameplay gives players enough wiggle room to experiment and possibly fail with flashy tricks. Roll7 didn't stop there, also delivering Rollerdrome, a game that combines score-based rollerblading with shooting to create an action-sports game mix players didn't know they needed.
Playing sports can give you an ultra-focused adrenaline rush, and a game like OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome can achieve that same flow state through gameplay. Meanwhile, other games interpret sports in a brand new way outright.

Read more
2022 was the rise (and fall) of the video game leaker
Jimmy De Santa flips off his sister in Grand Theft Auto V art.

Video games industry leaks and rumors aren't a new phenomenon. Half-Life 2's source code leaked in 2003, and rumors about what gaming companies would do next have always enamored gaming fans and media. That reached a boiling point in 2022, though. Multiple notable leakers vied for influencer status in the eyes of an avid community that was chomping at the bit to learn what their favorite (or most hated) gaming company will do next.

While leakers were in the spotlight in 2022, it wasn't always for good reason. Grand Theft Auto VI footage was illegally obtained in September and leaked onto the internet, raising questions over when and how video games deserve to be revealed. Multiple notable leakers were exposed as frauds, and one with an accurate track record just outright retired. Video game industry leaks and rumors feel more relevant (and flawed) than ever, and some of 2022's biggest video game news stories will forever be associated with them.
Video game rumors in 2022
Video game leaking culture was prevalent throughout 2022, with notable figures like Jeff Grubb and Tom Henderson providing insights into what game developers were working on. Henderson even launched a website centered around reporting on rumors called Insider Gaming. Though the site has had its misses, its already broken several stories ahead of an official announcement.

Read more
2022’s biggest games need to learn a valuable lesson from Elden Ring
Elden Ring knight sitting with maiden at a site of grace.

As 2022's biggest releases, Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok have been pitted against each other in just about every way this year. However, they couldn't be more different in one key way. While Elden Ring wants its players to get lost in The Lands Between, God of War: Ragnarok (and many more of 2022's biggest budget games) seem terrified of players missing a single piece of content.

Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and most other blockbuster game this year tended to hold players hands tighter than ever. That attitude stood in stark contrast with Elden Ring, which isn't just OK with letting players miss out on massive amounts of content, but almost seems to want them to. This isn't purely a critique on how Forbidden West has checklists and waypoints while Elden Ring doesn't; those are just the symptoms of the bigger problem with modern game design.

Read more