On December 8th, the winners for the yearly Game Awards were announced for 2022. The Game Awards is an annual award ceremony which recognizes achievements in the video game industry. Geoff Keighley, founder of The Game Awards, hosted the event. It was held live at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. 

Game Award titles are decided by a mix of jury votes and audience votes. The jury consists of 100 gaming, media and influencer outlets such as IGN, PC Gamer, and Polygon. Audiences can vote for their favorite game on the Game Awards website. However, in other categories such as Players Choice, fan votes alone decide the winner. 

The overall winner of the prestigious title of “Game of the Year” went to Elden Ring. Elden Ring is an action role-playing game created by FromSoftware. Previously Elden Ring had won both The Grand Award and the Award for Excellence at the 2022 Japan Game Awards. Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki accepted the award onstage at the Microsoft Theater. A translator relays on behalf of Miyazaki, who does not speak english, “I’d like to share this great appreciation for our entire team members, everybody at FromSoftware, our partner Bandai Namco, all collaborators, and last but not least Mr. George R. R. Martin who created the great mythos for this game.”

While not winning Game of the Year, the game: God of War Ragnarök dominated in other categories.  God of War: Ragnarök is an action/adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and is a part of the God of War series of games. Ragnarök won 6 out of 11 categories it was nominated for, winning the most awards overall and the most nominations at the event. The game won: Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Action/Adventure, and Innovation in Accessibility. As well as, Best Performance for Christophor Judge’s role as Kratos and Best Score and Music for Bear McCreary’s composition. 

Individuals are also recognized at the event for their influence or contribution to the gaming community. “Content Creator of the Year” was bestowed upon Ludwig Ahgren, a video game streamer and YouTuber. The award, “Best ESports Player”  was given to Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Best ESports Coach to Matheus “bzkA” Tarascon.

The night concluded with Keighley announcing that next year’s Game Awards will be partnering with the Los Angeles Philharmonic who will be performing live video game music at the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Game Awards.