The Game Awards 2023 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2023. It was the tenth show hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of the Game Awards, held with a live audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2023. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. The event was live streamed across online platforms globally. It featured musical performances from Loren Allred, Heilung, and Old Gods of Asgard, and presentations from celebrity guests, including Timothée Chalamet, Christopher Judge, and Matthew McConaughey.
Baldur's Gate 3 led the show with nine nominations and six wins, including Game of the Year and Best Performance for Neil Newbon. Several new games were announced during the show, including Marvel's Blade, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, and Visions of Mana. The show was viewed by over 118 million streams, the most in its history to date, with more than 17,000 co-streams from content creators. Journalists criticized the show for prioritizing announcements and celebrities over awards, and its lack of acknowledgement of industry layoffs and the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
Background As with previous iterations of the Game Awards, the 2023 show was hosted and produced by Canadian games journalist Geoff Keighley. He returned as an executive producer alongside Kimmie Kim, and Richard Preuss and LeRoy Bennett returned as director and creative director, respectively. Sydnee Goodman returned as host of the 30-minute preshow, titled Opening Act. The presentation took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2023, and was live streamed across more than 30 online platforms globally, including Facebook, Instagram, Steam, TikTok, Twitch, X, and YouTube.
Public tickets became available for purchase on November 6, and sold out within a week, quicker than any previous year. The show increased security following stage interruptions at the previous ceremony in December 2022 and Gamescom's Opening Night Live in August 2023. Keighley said the show and preshow aimed for a collective three-hour runtime, like its predecessor. The Game Awards 2023 was the fourth show to feature Future Class, a list of 50 individuals from across the video game industry who best represent its future, organized by Keighley and Emily Bouchac. The list was announced on December 5, featuring individuals like Marvel's Midnight Suns writer Emma Kidwell, The Sims 4 experience design lead Alister Lee, and accessibility consultant Ross Minor.
Announcements According to Keighley, the show avoided the term "world premiere" for new announcements, instead treating all content equally. Announcements on both released and upcoming games were made for:
Apex Legends Arknights: Endfield As Dusk Falls Asgard's Wrath 2 Baldur's Gate 3 Black Myth: Wukong Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Dave the Diver Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Final Fantasy XVI The Finals The First Descendant Fortnite Rocket Racing God of War Ragnarök GTFO Guilty Gear Strive Honkai: Star Rail Lego Fortnite Metaphor: ReFantazio No Man's Sky The Outlast Trials Palia Persona 3 Reload Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Ready or Not Rise of the Rōnin Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Skull and Bones Stormgate Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Zenless Zone Zero
New games announced included:
Big Walk Untitled Crazy Taxi game Den of Wolves Exoborne Exodus Untitled Golden Axe game Harmonium: The Musical Untitled Jet Set Radio game Jurassic Park: Survival Kemuri Last Sentinel Light No Fire Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Marvel's Blade Mecha Break Monster Hunter Wilds No Rest for the Wicked OD Pony Island 2: Panda Circus Shinobi: Art of Vengeance Streets of Rage: Revolution Tales of Kenzera: Zau The Casting of Frank Stone The First Berserker: Khazan The Rise of the Golden Idol Thrasher Usual June Visions of Mana Windblown World of Goo 2
Winners and nominees Nominees were announced on November 13, 2023. Any game released for public consumption on or before November 17 was eligible for consideration. The nominees were compiled by a jury panel composed of members from over 100 media outlets globally. Specialized juries decided the nominees for categories such as accessibility, adaptation, and esports. Winners were determined between the jury (90 percent) and public voting (10 percent); the latter was held via the official website and Discord server until December 6. The exception is the Players' Voice award, fully nominated and voted-on by the public, for which voting opened on November 27. According to Keighley, first-day website voting saw a 73% increase over the previous year.
The Game Awards partnered with Nighttimes and Studio 568 to create an in-game hub world in Fortnite, available from November 14, allowing players to vote for their favorite user-created islands among ten nominees; the winner was announced during the ceremony. Keighley had been seeking to create more in-game events since hosting a live show in Fortnite in 2019, and sought to allow in-game live viewership of the show in the future. He felt it was a more effective advertising technique for the show than traditional marketing like billboards. According to Keighley, the hub world surpassed one million plays within three days, with more than 875,000 unique players.
Awards Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ().
Media
Game of the Year Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment Resident Evil 4 – Capcom Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo | valign="top" | Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo |- ! style="background:#eedd82" | ! style="background:#eedd82" | |- | valign="top" | Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – CD Projekt Red / CD Projekt Final Fantasy XVI – Square Enix Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment | valign="top" | Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Lies of P – Round8 Studio / Neowiz Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo |- ! style="background:#eedd82" | ! style="background:#eedd82" | |- | valign="top" | Final Fantasy XVI – Masayoshi Soken Alan Wake 2 – Petri Alanko Baldur's Gate 3 – Borislav Slavov Hi-Fi Rush – Shuichi Kobori The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo | valign="top" | Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing Dead Space – Motive Studios / Electronic Arts Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment Resident Evil 4 – Capcom |- ! style="background:#eedd82" | ! style="background:#eedd82" | |- | valign="top" | Neil Newbon as Astarion – Baldur's Gate 3 Idris Elba as Solomon Reed – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Melanie Liburd as Saga Anderson – Alan Wake 2 Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker / Spider-Man – Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Ben Starr as Clive Rosfield – Final Fantasy XVI Tchia – Awaceb / Kepler Interactive A Space for the Unbound – Mojiken Studio / Toge Productions Chants of Sennaar – Rundisc / Focus Entertainment Goodbye Volcano High – KO_OP Terra Nil – Free Lives / Devolver Digital Venba – Visai Games Sea of Stars – Sabotage Studio Cocoon – Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive Dave the Diver – Mintrocket Dredge – Black Salt Games / Team17 Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful Publishing Cocoon – Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive Dredge – Black Salt Games / Team17 Pizza Tower – Tour De Pizza Venba – Visai Games Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful Publishing Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt Red / CD Projekt Apex Legends – Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts Final Fantasy XIV – Square Enix Fortnite – Epic Games Genshin Impact – miHoYo / HoYoverse Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt Red / CD Projekt Destiny 2 – Bungie Final Fantasy XIV – Square Enix No Man's Sky – Hello Games Honkai: Star Rail – miHoYo / HoYoverse Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis – Applibot, Square Enix Creative Business Unit I / Square Enix Hello Kitty Island Adventure – Sunblink Monster Hunter Now – Niantic, Capcom Terra Nil – Free Lives / Devolver Digital Resident Evil Village – Capcom Gran Turismo 7 – Polyphony Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment Humanity – tha LTD. / Enhance Games Horizon Call of the Mountain – Guerrilla Games, Firesprite / Sony Interactive Entertainment Synapse – nDreams Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon – FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment Dead Island 2 – Dambuster Studios / Deep Silver Ghostrunner 2 – One More Level / 505 Games Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks Remnant 2 – Gunfire Games / Gearbox Publishing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Publishing Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment Resident Evil 4 – Capcom Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Respawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Final Fantasy XVI – Square Enix Lies of P – Round8 Studio / Neowiz Sea of Stars – Sabotage Studio Starfield – Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks Street Fighter 6 – Capcom God of Rock – Modus Games Mortal Kombat 1 – NetherRealm Studios / Warner Bros. Games Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 – Fair Play Labs / GameMill Entertainment Pocket Bravery – Statera Studio / PQube Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Disney Illusion Island – Dlala Studios / Disney Electronic Content Party Animals – Recreate Games / Source Technology Pikmin 4 – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Sonic Superstars – Arzest, Sonic Team / Sega Pikmin 4 – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp – WayForward / Nintendo Cities: Skylines II – Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive Company of Heroes 3 – Relic Entertainment / Sega Fire Emblem Engage – Intelligent Systems / Nintendo Forza Motorsport – Turn 10 Studios / Xbox Game Studios EA Sports FC 24 – EA Vancouver, EA Romania / EA Sports F1 23 – Codemasters / EA Sports Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged – Milestone The Crew Motorfest – Ubisoft Ivory Tower / Ubisoft Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Diablo IV – Blizzard Team 3, Blizzard Albany / Blizzard Entertainment Party Animals – Recreate Games / Source Technology Street Fighter 6 – Capcom Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo EPD / Nintendo Forza Motorsport – Turn 10 Studios / Xbox Game Studios Diablo IV – Blizzard Team 3, Blizzard Albany / Blizzard Entertainment Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment Mortal Kombat 1 – NetherRealm Studios / Warner Bros. Games Street Fighter 6 – Capcom The Last of Us (television series) – PlayStation Productions / HBO; Castlevania: Nocturne (animated series) – Powerhouse Animation / Netflix; Gran Turismo (film) – PlayStation Productions / Sony Pictures Releasing; The Super Mario Bros. Movie (animated film) – Illumination, Nintendo / Universal Pictures;