Ever sat there wondering why some games just... win? I’m talking about the big one. The "Game of the Year" (GOTY) title at the end of the December gala. It’s the industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, but with more energy drinks and orchestral medleys. Since Geoff Keighley kicked off The Game Awards in 2014—and even during the messy Spike TV years before that—one single game gets to walk away as the "best."
But looking back at every Game of the Year winner, you start to see a weird, fascinating pattern. It’s not always about which game sold the most copies. If it were, we'd just give a trophy to Call of Duty or Minecraft every single year and go home early. Instead, the list is a graveyard of "sure things" and a pedestal for the games that actually shifted the culture. Honestly, some of these wins were total shocks. Others were so obvious that the nominees might as well have stayed home.
Whether you’re a die-hard completionist or a casual who only picks up a controller once a month, looking at the history of these winners tells the story of how gaming evolved from "toys" into the most dominant form of entertainment on the planet.
The Modern Era: From 2014 to Today
The Game Awards started as a bit of a gamble. People weren't sure if a digital-first award show would have any teeth. Then 2014 happened. Dragon Age: Inquisition took the very first trophy. It was a dense, tactical RPG from BioWare that managed to outshine Shadow of Mordor and Dark Souls II. It felt like a safe pick at the time, but looking back, it was the last gasp of "traditional" fantasy before things got really experimental.
📖 Related: Finding Every Lies of P Weapon Location Without Losing Your Mind
Then came 2015. This was the year of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. If you want to know why every game today has a giant open world and complex side quests, blame Geralt of Rivia. CD Projekt Red basically reset the bar for how much detail you could cram into a single map. It didn’t just win; it dominated the conversation for years.
2016 was a massive curveball. Most people expected Uncharted 4 to cruise to a win. Instead, Overwatch took the crown. It was a multiplayer-only hero shooter. No campaign. No traditional narrative. It was Blizzard at the height of their power, proving that "Game of the Year" wasn't just for 60-hour cinematic epics.
The Heavy Hitters That Changed Everything
If you look at the 2017 to 2019 window, you see games that didn't just win—they became verbs.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017): This didn't just win for Nintendo; it destroyed the "Ubisoft towers" model of open-world design. You could go anywhere. See that mountain? Walk to it. Climb it.
- God of War (2018): This was Kratos’s mid-life crisis, and we loved it. It beat out Red Dead Redemption 2, which is still one of the most debated wins in history. While Red Dead was hyper-realistic, God of War was tight, emotional, and featured that incredible "one-shot" camera style.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019): FromSoftware finally got their flowers. It was a brutal, rhythm-based action game that most people couldn't even finish, yet its perfection couldn't be ignored.
The 2020s: A Shift in the Vibe
2020 was a weird year for everyone, and the awards reflected that. The Last of Us Part II won, but it sparked a firestorm of internet debate that hasn't really died down. It was technically flawless but narratively divisive. It’s basically the "Citizen Kane" of games—respected by critics, debated by everyone else.
Then 2021 gave us It Takes Two. A co-op only game? Winning GOTY? It was a heartwarming middle finger to the idea that you need a $200 million budget to win. You literally couldn't play it alone. It was a massive win for indie-leaning studios like Hazelight.
The New Giants
In 2022, we got Elden Ring. This was the inevitable conclusion of the "Soulsborne" craze. Hidetaka Miyazaki combined the mystery of Zelda with the punishing combat of Sekiro. It was a literal phenomenon.
🔗 Read more: How to Make an Iron Golem in Minecraft Without Losing Your Mind
2023 was the year of Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios did something people thought was impossible: they made a turn-based Dungeons & Dragons simulator the most popular game in the world. It was a victory for player choice. You could be a hero, a villain, or a guy who accidentally kills his entire party because he clicked the wrong button.
More recently, we saw Astro Bot take it in 2024. It was a pure, joyous celebration of PlayStation history. No grimdark themes, no microtransactions—just a robot jumping on platforms. Most people get this game wrong by thinking it’s "just for kids." It’s actually a masterclass in haptic feedback and level design.
Most recently, in 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shocked the industry by winning. A turn-based RPG with high-fidelity visuals and a unique "reactive" combat system, it beat out massive sequels like Death Stranding 2 and the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong. It set a record for the most individual awards won in a single night, proving that new IP can still take down the giants.
The "Spike Era" History (2003-2013)
Before the shiny theater in LA, we had the Spike Video Game Awards. It was... different. More "MTV" and less "symphony orchestra." But the winners list is still the bedrock of gaming history.
- 2003: Madden NFL 2004 (The first and only sports game to ever win)
- 2004: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (The game that defined the PS2 era)
- 2005: Resident Evil 4 (Basically invented the over-the-shoulder camera)
- 2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (The start of the Bethesda dominance)
- 2007: BioShock (Would you kindly remember how good this story was?)
- 2008: Grand Theft Auto IV (A darker, more serious turn for Rockstar)
- 2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog’s first massive GOTY win)
- 2010: Red Dead Redemption (Cowboys, tragedy, and a perfect ending)
- 2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (The game we are still playing 15 years later)
- 2012: The Walking Dead (Telltale proved that point-and-click story games could be huge)
- 2013: Grand Theft Auto V (The beast that refuses to die)
What Most People Get Wrong About These Wins
There’s this common myth that the "best-selling" game always wins. It’s almost never true. Minecraft never won. Fortnite never won. Call of Duty hasn't won the big one in two decades.
The judges—a mix of over 100 global media outlets—usually look for "innovation" and "impact." This is why Astro Bot could beat Black Myth: Wukong in 2024 despite Wukong selling significantly more copies. The awards tend to favor games that push the medium forward technically or artistically.
Another misconception is that the "Game of the Year" is an objective fact. It’s not. It’s a snapshot of what a specific group of people felt was important that year. If you look at 2018, half the internet still thinks Red Dead 2 was robbed. In 2016, there’s still a vocal group that thinks Doom or Uncharted 4 was the real winner.
How to Use This Knowledge
If you’re looking for something new to play, the "every game of the year winner" list is essentially a curated "Must Play" list for the 21st century. You can basically track the history of technology through these games.
- Start with the "Gaps": Most people have played Skyrim or GTA V, but have you played It Takes Two or Sekiro? These winners often represent genres you might normally ignore.
- Look for Trends: Notice how RPGs have won 6 of the last 12 years? If you want to understand where the industry is going, look at the RPG mechanics being added to other genres.
- Respect the Runner-Ups: Sometimes the games that didn't win are just as influential. Bloodborne lost to The Witcher 3 in 2015, but it’s still considered a masterpiece.
To truly understand the industry, you need to look at these winners not as "the best games ever," but as the games that defined their specific moments in time. From the tactical depths of Dragon Age to the surreal beauty of Expedition 33, this list is the pulse of gaming culture.
The next step for any fan is to pick a winner you missed—perhaps an older title like BioShock or a recent surprise like Astro Bot—and play it through the lens of its release year. See if the "innovation" that won it the trophy still holds up today. Often, you'll find that these games haven't just aged well; they've become the blueprint for everything you're playing right now.