The Game Awards 2020: Here are the award night’s winners…

game awards 2020

This year’s edition of the Game Awards, which honoured the best of gaming and esports of 2020, was a first for the annual ceremony.

When it came to this year’s gaming awards, The Last of Us Part II, Among Us, and indie release, Hades were the night’s biggest winners.

Presented by Geoff Keighley, the ceremony was broadcast live from Los Angeles, London and Tokyo  on 10 December 2020.

The ceremony was live-streamed via YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch, as well as other platforms.

This year had proven to be an interesting and exciting year for gaming.

2020 saw the launches of the next-gen consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as well as some exceptional gaming releases across all gaming platforms.

Additionally, Final Fantasy VII Remake and horror title, Phasmophobia were also honoured.

The Game Awards held their nomination announcement ceremony on 18 November 2020.

This year’s ceremony has added two new categories to the show ‒ Player’s Voice and Future Class awards.

These two categories recognise the games that players enjoyed this past year and upcoming talent in the industry respectively.

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima was awarded the year’s inaugural Player’s Voice award.

The ceremony also featured celebrity presenters, world premieres, game announcements, and plenty of awards to hand out.

Below is the full list of categories, with their respective winners highlighted.

Game of the Year

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE 

Other nominees:

  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons ‒ Nintendo
  • DOOM Eternal ‒ id Software/Bethesda
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Square Enix
  • Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Sucker Punch/SIE
  • Hades ‒ Supergiant Games

Best Game Direction

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE 

Other nominees:

  • Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Square Enix
  • Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Sucker Punch/SIE
  • Hades ‒ Supergiant Games
  • Half-Life: Alyx ‒ Valve

Most Anticipated Game

Winner: Elden Ring – From Software/Bandai Namco

Other nominees:

  • Halo Infinite – 343/Xbox Game Studios
  • Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla Games/SIE
  • God of War Sequel – SIE Santa Monica/SIE
  • Resident Evil Village – Capcom
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel – Nintendo

Best Narrative

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Writers Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross

Other nominees:

  • 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim ‒ Written by George Kamitani
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Written by Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroaki Iwaki and Sachie Hirano
  • Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Writers Ian Ryan, Liz Albl, Patrick Downs, Jordan Lemos, Nate Fox
  • Hades ‒ Writer Greg Kasavin

Best Art Direction

Winner: Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Sucker Punch/SIE

Other nominees:

  • Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Square Enix
  • Hades ‒ Supergiant Games
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps ‒ Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios
  • The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE

Best Score and Music

Winner: Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki 

Other nominees:

  • DOOM Eternal ‒ Composed by Mick Gordon
  • Hades ‒ Composed by Darren Korb
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps ‒ Composed by Gareth Coker
  • The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, Additional Music by Mac Quayle

Best Audio Design

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE

Other nominees:

  • DOOM Eternal ‒ id Software/Bethesda
  • Half-Life: Alyx ‒ Valve
  • Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Sucker Punch/SIE
  • Resident Evil 3 ‒ Capcom

Best Performance

Winner: Laura Bailey, Abby ‒ The Last of Us: Part II 

Other nominees:

  • Daisuke Tsuji, Jin ‒ Ghost of Tsushima
  • Logan Cunningham, Hades ‒ Hades
  • Nadji Jeter, Miles Morales ‒ Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Ashley Johnson, Ellie ‒ The Last of Us: Part II

Games for Impact

Winner: Tell Me Why ‒ Dotnod Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios

Other nominees:

  • If Found… ‒ Dreamfeel
  • Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition ‒ Cardboard Computer
  • Spiritfarer ‒ Thunder Lotus Games
  • Through the Darkest of Times ‒ Paintbucket Games

Best Ongoing Game

Winner: No Man’s Sky ‒ Hello Games 

Other nominees:

  • Apex Legends ‒ Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
  • Call of Duty: Warzone ‒ Infinity Ward/Activision/Raven Software
  • Destiny 2 ‒ Bungie
  • Fortnite ‒ Epic Games

Best Indie

Winner: Hades ‒ Supergiant Games

Other nominees:

  • Carrion ‒ Phobia Game Studio/Devolver
  • Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout ‒ Mediatonic/Devolver
  • Spelunky 2 ‒ Mossmouth, LLC
  • Spiritfarer ‒ Thunder Lotus Games

Best Mobile Game

Winner: Among Us ‒ Innersloth 

Other nominees:

  • Call of Duty Mobile ‒ TIMI Studios/Activision
  • Genshin Impact ‒ miHoYo
  • Legends of Runeterra ‒ Riot Games
  • Pokémon Café Mix ‒ Genius Sonority

Best Community Support

Winner: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout ‒ Mediatonic/Devolver

Other nominees:

  • Apex Legends ‒ Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
  • Destiny 2 ‒ Bungie
  • Fortnite ‒ Epic Games
  • No Man’s Sky ‒ Hello Games

Best VR/AR Game Award

Winner: Half-Life: Alyx ‒ Valve 

Other nominees:

  • Dreams ‒ Media Molecule/SIE
  • Marvel’s Iron Man VR ‒ Camoflaj/SIE
  • Star Wars: Squadrons ‒ Motive Studios/Electronic Arts
  • The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners ‒ Skydance Interactive

Innovation in Accessibility

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE

Other nominees:

  • Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla ‒ Ubisoft Montreal
  • Grounded ‒ Obsidian Entertainment
  • Hyperdot ‒ Tribe Games
  • Watch Dogs Legion ‒ Ubisoft Toronto

Best Action

Winner: Hades ‒ Supergiant Games

Other nominees:

  • DOOM Eternal ‒ id Software/Bethesda
  • Half-Life: Alyx ‒ Valve
  • Nioh 2 ‒ Team Ninja
  • Streets of Rage 4 ‒ Dotemu

Best Action/Adventure

Winner: The Last of Us: Part II ‒ Naughty Dog/SIE 

Other nominees:

  • Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla ‒ Ubisoft Montreal
  • Ghost of Tsushima ‒ Sucker Punch/SIE
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales ‒ Insomniac Games/SIE
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps ‒ Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios
  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ‒ Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Best Role-Playing Game

Winner: Final Fantasy VII Remake ‒ Square Enix

Other nominees:

  • Genshin Impact ‒ miHoYo
  • Persona 5 Royal ‒ Atlus/P Studio/SEGA
  • Wasteland 3 ‒ inXile/Deep Silver
  • Yakuza: Like A Dragon ‒ Ryu Ga Gotoku/SEGA

Best Fighting Game

Winner: Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate ‒ Netherrealm Studios/WB Games

Other nominees:

  • Granblue Fantasy: Versus ‒ Arc System Works/Cygames/XSeed
  • One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows ‒ Spike Chunsoft/Bandai Namco
  • Street Fighter V: Champion Edition ‒ Dimps/Capcom
  • Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[CL-R] ‒ French Bread/Arc System Works/Aksys

Best Family Game

Winner: Animal Crossing: New Horizons ‒ Nintendo 

Other nominees:

  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time ‒ Toys for Bob/Activision
  • Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout ‒ Mediatonic/Devolver
  • Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit ‒ Velan Studios/Nintendo
  • Minecraft Dungeons ‒ Mojang/Double Eleven/Xbox Game Studios
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King ‒ Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Best Sim/Strategy

Winner: Microsoft Flight Simulator ‒ Asobo/Xbox Game Studios

Other nominees:

  • Crusader Kings III ‒ Paradox Development Studio/Paradox
  • Desperados III ‒ Mimimi Games/THQN
  • Gears Tactics ‒ Splash Damage/The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios
  • XCOM: Chimera Squad ‒ Firaxis/2K

Best Sports/Racing

Winner: *Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 ‒ Vicarious Visions/Activision 

Other nominees:

  • Dirt 5 ‒ Codemasters Chesire/Codemasters
  • F1 2020 ‒ Codemasters Birmingham/Codemasters
  • FIFA 21 ‒ Electronic Arts Vancouver/Electronic Arts Romania
  • NBA 2K21 ‒ Visual Concepts/2K

Best Multiplayer Game Award

Winner: Among Us ‒ Innersloth 

  • Other nominees:
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons ‒ Nintendo
  • Call of Duty: Warzone ‒ Infinity Ward/Activision/Raven Software
  • Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout ‒ Mediatonic/Devolver
  • Valorant ‒ Riot Games

Best Debut Game

Winner: Phasmophobia ‒ Kinetic Games

Other nominees:

  • Carrion ‒ Phobia Game Studio/Devolver
  • Mortal Shell ‒ Cold Symmetry/Playstack
  • Raji: An Ancient Epic ‒ Nodding Heads Games
  • Röki ‒ Polygon Treehouse

Additionally, The Game Awards recognised content creators and their outstanding work over the last year.

Content Creator of the Year

Winner: Valkyrae 

Other nominees:

  • Alanah Pearce
  • Jay Ann Lopez
  • Nickmercs
  • TimTheTatman

There also six categories dedicated to eSports.

Here are the categories as well as the winners…

Best eSports Athlete

Winner: Heo “Showmaker” Su ‒ League of Legends

Other nominees:

  • Kim “Canyon” Geon-Bu ‒ League of Legends
  • Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro ‒ Call of Duty
  • Matthieu “Zywoo” Herbaut ‒ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
  • Ian “Crimsix” Porter ‒ Call of Duty

Best eSports Coach

Winner: Danny “Zonic” Sorensen ‒ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) 

Other nominees:

  • Fabian “Grabbz” Lohmann ‒ League of Legends
  • Raymond “Rambo” Lussier ‒ Call of Duty
  • Lee “Zefa” Jae-Min ‒ League of Legends
  • Dae-Hee “Crusty” Park ‒ Overwatch World League

Best eSports Event

Winner: League of Legends World Championship 2020 ‒ League of Legends 

Other nominees:

  • Blast Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals ‒ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
  • Call of Duty League Championship 2020 ‒ Call of Duty
  • IEM Katowice 2020 ‒ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
  • Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020 ‒ Overwatch

Best eSports Game

Winner: League of Legends ‒ Riot Games

Other nominees:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ‒ Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) ‒ Valve
  • Fortnite ‒ Epic Games
  • Valorant ‒ Riot Games

Best eSports Host

Winner: Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere

Other nominees:

  • Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez
  • James “Dash” Patterson
  • Alex “Machine” Richardson
  • Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden

Best eSports Team

Winner: G2 eSports ‒ League of Legends

Other nominees:

  • Dallas Empire ‒ Call of Duty
  • Damwon Gaming ‒ League of Legends
  • San Francisco Shock ‒ Overwatch League
  • Team Secret ‒ DotA2

You can check out the full list of winners on the Game Awards website.

Feature image: The Game Awards

Ashleigh Klein
More

News

Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest in digital insights. sign up

Welcome to Memeburn

Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest in digital insights.