God of War: Ragnarök dominates Game Awards 2022
12 December 2022
Just a few days ago, one of the biggest and most prestigious award events in the world of international esports took place and God of War: Ragnarök lived up to its major promise. During the Game Awards 2022, the Santa Monica Studio hack-and-slash action game took home six awards, more than any other nominated title, including the coveted awards for Best Narrative and Best Action/Adventure Game. The award for Game of the Year was won by Elden Ring though, which won four awards in total.
Intense competition
The presence of several high-profile, highly anticipated and hugely successful titles in various award categories resulted in a record number of votes. In the build-up to the Game Awards 2022, more than 55 million votes were submitted, which represented an increase of almost 138% compared to the ceremony’s virtual 2021 edition. Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök, in particular, battled it out hard amongst the game titles with 8 nominations and 11 nominations, respectively.
God of War: Ragnarök ended up converting six of those nominations into awards, including in the categories Best Narrative (beating A Plague Tale: Requiem and Elden Ring, amongst others), Best Audio Design (overcoming Gran Turismo 7 and Horizon Forbidden West, amongst others), and Best Action/Adventure Game (edging out, amongst others, The Last of Us Part 1 and As Dusk Falls). The second-most awarded game, Elden Ring ended up taking home four Game Awards, including Game of the Year (for which Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarök were nominated as well) and Best Game Direction, for which they beat Immortality and God of War: Ragnarök, amongst others.
Exclusive announcements
For many viewers of the Game Awards and esports fans in general, the Game Awards are about much more than the awards themselves. The event is also known for its announcements regarding new games and developments in the world of gaming, often by developers, esports organizations and gaming companies themselves. For this year’s edition, there were between thirty and forty games and developers presenting new content during the awards, including a showing of the first clip op The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the announcement of new FromSoftware title Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, and exclusive news regarding Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, just to name a few examples.
Return to live audiences
The Game Awards 2022 represented a return to live environments for the first time since 2019, when COVID-19 restrictions kicked in and the ceremony, like countless other live events around the world, could no longer be organized. There were still some restrictions in place so as to limit total attendance as this was the first live show since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, but still a total of about 1.000 people attended. Public tickets had become available for purchase on November 1st and the event was accessible for international guests as well, thanks to the removal of many travel restrictions.