The 20th British Academy Video Game Awards were hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on 11 April 2024 to honour the best video games of 2023. Held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the ceremony was hosted by comedian Phil Wang for the first time. Nominations were announced on March 7, 2024, with epic fantasy roleplaying game Baldur's Gate 3 earning a leading eleven nominations. Charity SpecialEffect was honoured with the BAFTA Special Award for their work in making gaming more accessible to people with physical disabilities. Baldur's Gate 3 received the most wins at the ceremony, with five including Best Game.
Background Eligibility Any game released between 10 December 2022 and 24 November 2023 was eligible for nomination.
Awards changes For the 20th BAFTA Games Awards, a number of changes were announced: Voting opened on 1 June 2023, three months earlier than the previous ceremony. Submissions for the awards are now encouraged within 30 days of launch, with developers and publishers who submit their games within this window being charged half the price of a regular submission. BAFTA advised that this is to give members more time to play each of the submissions and to encourage them to play games that they normally wouldn't, with BAFTA chair Tara Saunders stating that "our goal is to allow more people to play a broader selection of titles ahead of the first round voting and continue to make the awards as representative of the industry as we can." British Academy Games Award for Original Property was renamed to New Intellectual Property. Winners of Best Game and British Game are now selected by the entire BAFTA Games membership, with all 1000+ members being invited to vote. Previously, the winners of these categories were decided by a jury of industry experts. All other categories will continue to be decided by juries, with Saunders explaining that "juries only allow for a small amount of the membership to be involved, so the changes we've made are to be more inclusive to all members. Jury discussions are especially great when they are focused around a specific craft or element of a game, like animation, art direction, audio, and so on. We feel it's important to continue to build specialist juries of highly-skilled talent that know the award category inside out and this will continue to be an important part of the awards process for us. Although award categories like Best Game and British Game still work in the jury format, by going back out to all members, it will have a positive impact on overall membership engagement and bring wider opinions into awards. They are all qualified to give input and we trust our members to vote wisely and with consideration to uphold the quality that the BAFTA games awards is already known for in the industry."
Longlist On 14 December 2023, BAFTA released their official longlist for the first time, featuring over sixty games across their seventeen categories. Larian Studios' epic fantasy RPG Baldur's Gate 3 lead longlist appearances, with fifteen, followed by Remedy Entertainment's survival horror game Alan Wake II, which is longlisted fourteen times. Other top performing games include Insomniac's action-adventure game Spider-Man 2 which received ten appearances, and Avalanche Software's fantasy action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy which featured nine times. Regarding the decision to reveal the longlist to the public, rather than informing developers and publishers directly that their game has been longlisted as they have in the past, Saunders stated that "by now doing so, we hope this transparency will recognise and shine a light on a wider selection of games ahead of the jury and round two vote stages".
Winners and nominees The nominees were announced on 7 March 2024 via a livestream on the official BAFTA YouTube channel hosted by journalist Lucy James and panelists Isla Hinck, Blessing Adeoye, Jr., Leah Alexandra, and Aoife Wilson. Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Dave the Diver – Mintrocket The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo | valign="top" |
Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Hogwarts Legacy – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo |- | valign="top" |
Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Cocoon – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive Diablo IV – Blizzard Entertainment Final Fantasy XVI – Square Enix Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks | width="50%" valign="top" |
Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – Sledgehammer Games/Activision Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts |- | valign="top" |
Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Group Cassette Beasts – Bytten Studios/Raw Fury Dead Island 2 – Dambuster Studios/Plaion Disney Illusion Island – Dlala Studios/Disney Football Manager 2024 – Sports Interactive/Sega Europe Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – Frontier Developments | width="50%" valign="top" |
Venba – Visai Games Cocoon – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive Dave the Diver – Mintrocket Dredge – Black Salt Games/Team17 Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical – Summerfall Games/Humble Games Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Group |- | valign="top" |
Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt RED Final Fantasy XIV – Square Enix Fortnite – Epic Games Forza Horizon 5 – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios Genshin Impact – HOYOVERSE No Man's Sky – Hello Games | width="50%" valign="top" |
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Cocoon – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive Dave the Diver – Mintrocket Disney Illusion Island – Dlala Studios/Disney Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks Hogwarts Legacy – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games |- | valign="top" |
Tchia – Awaceb/Kepler Interactive Chants of Sennaar – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment Goodbye Volcano High – KO OP Terra Nil – Free Lives/Devolver Digital Thirsty Suitors – Outerloop Games/Annapurna Interactive Venba – Visai Games | width="50%" valign="top" |
Dave the Diver – Mintrocket Cocoon – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive Dredge – Black Salt Games/Team17 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Group |- | valign="top" |
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – Sledgehammer Games/Activision Diablo IV – Blizzard Entertainment Forza Motorsport – Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios Party Animals – Recreate Games/Source Technology | width="50%" valign="top" |
Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Assassin's Creed Mirage – Ubisoft The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts |- | valign="top" |
Baldur's Gate 3 – Larian Studios Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Dredge – Black Salt Games/Team17 Final Fantasy XVI – Square Enix The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts | width="50%" valign="top" |
Viewfinder – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Group Chants of Sennaar – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment Dave the Diver – Mintrocket Dredge – Black Salt Games/Team17 Hi-Fi Rush – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks Jusant – Don't Nod |- | valign="top" |
Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Amelia Tyler as Narrator in Baldur's Gate 3 Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Neil Newbon as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 Samantha Béart as Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3 Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Andrew Wincott as Raphael in Baldur's Gate 3 Debra Wilson as Cere Junda in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Ralph Ineson as Cidolfus Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI Sam Lake as Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2 Tony Todd as Venom in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Tracy Wiles as Jaheira in Baldur's Gate 3 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Alan Wake 2 – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Final Fantasy XVI – Square Enix Horizon Call of the Mountain – Guerrilla Games, Firesprite/Sony Interactive Entertainment Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment Starfield – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks Baldur's Gate 3'' – Larian Studios Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt RED Fortnite – Epic Games The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Lethal Company – Zeekerss Marvel's Spider-Man 2'' – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Special Award (presented by Sir Ian Livingstone): SpecialEffect
Games with multiple wins Game Wins Baldur's Gate 3 5 Alan Wake 22 Super Mario Bros. Wonder Viewfinder
Games with multiple nominations Game Nominations Baldur's Gate 3 11 Spider-Man 2 10 Alan Wake 2 8 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 7 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 6 Dave the Diver5 Hi-Fi Rush Cocoon 4 Dredge Final Fantasy XVI Super Mario Bros. Wonder Viewfinder Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III 2 Chants of Sennaar Cyberpunk 2077 Diablo IV Disney Illusion Island Fortnite Hogwarts Legacy Venba
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