The nominees for The Game Awards 2022 have been officially announced, and voting for the event is now open to the public. The annual awards show will celebrate many of the year's most beloved games, while also serving as a venue for exciting video game trailers and announcements. The Game Awards 2022 will be held on December 8, and host Geoff Keighley has finally unveiled the event's long list of nominees.
Fans can now look over The Game Awards 2022 nominees, and like previous years, The Game Awards 2022 features open voting which will let the gaming public help determine each section's winner. While a judging panel's votes have a much heavier influence on the outcome of The Game Awards, online fan votes do have a small impact on each game's final standing and the ultimate winner of each award. 2022 was a particularly successful year for the gaming industry, so the competition is sure to be fierce as December 8 approaches. The Game of the Year category, in particular, is set to be an intense battle between multiple truly epic experiences.
Game Of The Year 2022 Has Incredibly Stiff Competition
2022's Game of the Year category is filled with amazing titles, but two games in particular are predicted to battle it out for victory. FromSoftware's open-world RPG Elden Ring is up for Game of the Year, as is Santa Monica Studios' mythological epic God of War Ragnarok. These two titles are widely considered to be the best games of 2022, and their similarities and differences will make the head-to-head showdown particularly interesting. The multi-platform nature of Elden Ring might help it appeal to a wider audience, for example, but the recent launch of God of War Ragnarok might make the PlayStation exclusive fresh in many voters' minds.
The rest of the Game of the Year section isn't to be discounted, either, because it's filled with four more amazing titles. Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West delivered intense open-world machine hunts and an amazing post-apocalyptic story, while BlueTwelve Studios' Stray put players in the furry shoes of a cat lost in a cyberpunk world. Monolith Soft took players to the divided fantasy world of Aionios in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, while Asobo Studio's A Plague Tale: Requiem uses stealth and horror to tell a somber story of war and disease. With six incredible and unique games up for Game of the Year, it's impossible to predict the outcome of The Game Awards 2022.
The Best Multiplayer Category Is Very Diverse
The Game Awards 2022 will also have an incredibly diverse Best Multiplayer category that represents a wide range of genres. The category includes various competitive shooters, including Infinity Ward's modern military title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This recently released game has tough competition in the form of Nintendo EPD's cartoonish squid shooter Splatoon 3 and Blizzard's team-based hero shooter Overwatch 2. The Game Awards 2022 also nominates two non-shooters for Best Multiplayer: the free-to-play, approachable, crossover fighting game MultiVersus from Player First Games, and the cooperative brawler Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge by Tribute Games.
Best Action Game Includes Shooters, Brawlers, & Bayonetta
The Best Action Game category is similarly diverse, with intense combat-based games going head-to-head for the win. The category pits Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge against each other once again, with Sloclap's indie martial arts game Sifu also stepping into the ring. These titles are joined by Bayonetta 3, which series developer PlatinumGames just released in October, and the fast-paced shooter Neon White from Angel Matrix.
All Game Awards 2022 Nominees
Each title nominated for The Game Awards 2022 represents the hard work and dedication of many incredibly talented developers. Every game on the list delivers a truly unique experience that strives to perfect or innovate upon the games of yesteryear. While not every nominee will be crowned winners at the Game Awards 2022, each game and content creator has earned recognition in their own right. With that in mind, the nominees for The Game Awards 2022 are:
Game of the Year
- A Plague Tale: Requiem
- Elden Ring
- God of War Ragnarok
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Stray
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Best Game Direction
- Elden Ring
- God of War Ragnarok
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Immortality
- Stray
Best Narrative
- A Plague Tale: Requiem
- Elden Ring
- God of War Ragnarok
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Immortality
Best Art Direction
- Elden Ring
- God of War Ragnarok
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Scorn
- Stray
Best Score and Music
- Olivier Deriviere (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
- Tsukasa Saitoh (Elden Ring)
- Bear McCreary (God of War Ragnarok)
- Two Feathers (Metal: Hellsinger)
- Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenoblade Chronicles 3)
Best Audio Design
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Elden Ring
- God of War Ragnarok
- Gran Turismo 7
- Horizon Forbidden West
Best Performance
- Ashley Burch (Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West)
- Charlotte McBurney (Amicia de Rune in A Plague Tale: Requiem)
- Christopher Judge (Kratos in God of War Ragnarok)
- Manon Gage (Marissa Marcel in Immortality)
- Sunny Suljic (Atreus in God of War Ragnarok)
Games for Impact
- A Memoir Blue
- As Dusk Falls
- Citizen Sleeper
- Endling: Extinction is Forever
- Hindsight
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Best Ongoing
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
- Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker
- Fortnite
- Genshin Impact
Best Indie Game
- Cult of the Lamb
- Neon White
- Sifu
- Stray
- Tunic
Best Mobile Game
- Apex Legends Mobile
- Diablo Immortal
- Genshin Impact
- Marvel Snap
- Tower of Fantasy
Best Community Support
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
- Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker
- Fortnite
- No Man's Sky
Innovation in Accessibility
- As Dusk Falls
- God of War Ragnarok
- Return to Monkey Island
- The Last of Us Part 1
- The Quarry
Best VR/AR Game
- After the Fall
- Among Us VR
- BoneLab
- Moss: Book 2
- Red Matter 2
Best Action Game
- Bayonetta 3
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Neon White
- Sifu
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Best Action/Adventure Game
- A Plague Tale: Requiem
- God of War Ragnarok
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Stray
- Tunic
Best Role-Playing Game
- Elden Ring
- Live-A-Live
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus
- Triangle Strategy
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Best Fighting Game
- DNF Duel
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R
- The King of Fighters 15
- MultiVersus
- Sifu
Best Family Game
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
- Nintendo Switch Sports
- Splatoon 3
Best Strategy/Sim Game
- Dune: Spice Wars
- Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
- Total War: Warhammer 3
- Two Point Campus
- Victoria 3
Best Sports/Racing Game
- F1 22
- FIFA 23
- NBA 2K23
- Gran Turismo 7
- OlliOlli World
Best Multiplayer Game
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Multiversus
- Overwatch 2
- Splatoon 3
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Content Creator of the Year
- Karl Jacobs
- Ludwig
- Nibellion
- Nobru
- QTCinderella
Best Debut Indie Game
- Neon White
- Norco
- Stray
- Tunic
- Vampire Survivors
Best Adaptation
- Arcane: League of Legends
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
- The Cuphead Show!
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Uncharted
Most Anticipated Game
- Final Fantasy 16
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Resident Evil 4 remake
- Starfield
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Best Esports Game
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- DOTA 2
- League of Legends
- Rocket League
- Valorant
Best Esports Athlete
- Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon (League of Legends - Gen.G)
- Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok (League of Legends - T1)
- Finn "karrigan" Andersen (CSGO - FaZe Clan)
- Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev (CSGO - Natus Vincere)
- Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker (Valorant - Cloud 9)
Best Esports Team
- DarkZero Esports
- FaZe Clan
- Gen.G
- Los Angeles Thieves
- Loud
Best Esports Coach
- Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi (CSGO - Natus Vincere)
- Matheus "bzkA" Tarasconi (Valorant)
- Erik "d00mbr0s" Sandgren (Valorant - Natus Vincere)
- Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström (CSGO - FaZe Clan)
- Go "Score" Dong-bin (League of Legends - Gen.G)
Best Esports Event
- EVO 2022
- League of Legends Worlds 2022
- CSGO PGL Major Antwerp 2022
- MSI 2022
- Valorant Champions 2022
The Game Awards 2022 will celebrate this year's most impactful and meaningful games, with nominees ranging from massive AAA open-world adventures to small yet innovative indie projects. The event will also celebrate the enormous esports industry by acknowledging the community's greatest players, coaches, teams and events. The Game Awards 2022 will air live on December 8, and fans can start voting now to influence the outcome.
Source: The Game Awards 2022
In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, Screen Rant confirms it is on the judging panel at The Game Awards 2022. Our editorial process is entirely separate from our contributions to judging, and as such, our panel inclusion does not compromise our journalistic integrity.