List of Game of the Year awards

1UP.com

As of 2010, the winners of 1UP's Game of the Year are chosen by the editors. (In 2009, they also revealed their picks in the Reader's Choice Awards). For the Reader's Choice, see the Reader and gamer polls GOTY Section below.

Readers choice

In addition to the editor's picks, 1UP.com also hosts a poll for the Readers' GOTYs. Until 2010, this was considered their primary Game of the Year.

British Academy Games Awards (Formerly: BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards)

The British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honoring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards, the awards are presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and are thus commonly referred to as the BAFTA Games Awards.

Crash

Starting in 1984, the ZX Spectrum magazine Crash published an annual readers awards article, based on votes from the readers.

Crispy Gamer

The winners of the Crispy Gamer Game of the Year are chosen by the Crispy Gamer Game Trust.

Czech Game of the Year Awards

The Czech Game of the Year Awards are annual awards that recognize accomplishments in video game development.

D.I.C.E. Awards (Formerly: Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences)

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of industry professionals and presents a series of annual Interactive Achievement Awards. On October 24, 2012, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced that the IAAs would be known as the D.I.C.E. Awards beginning in 2013. The name stands for "Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain".

Easy Allies (Formerly: GameTrailers)

The winners of the Easy Allies (formerly GameTrailers) Game of the Year are chosen by Easy Allies staff (formerly GameTrailers editors).

Edge

The winners of the Edge Game of the Year are chosen by Edge editors.

Electronic Games

Along with the Arcade Awards announced by Electronic Games magazine each year, it also held a regular reader poll for the most popular games among its readers in each issue, from May 1982 to January 1985. The games that topped these polls the most in each year are listed here.

Electronic Gaming Awards (Formerly: Arcade Awards)

The Arcade Awards, also known as the Arkie Awards, was one of the first video game awards, dating back to the golden age of arcade video games and lasting up until the North American video game industry crash. It was held since 1980 (for games released in 1979 and earlier) and were announced annually by Electronic Games magazine since 1981, covering several different platform categories. Following the magazine's revival in 1992, it published the Electronic Gaming Awards in January 1993 for the best video games released in 1992. The 1992 and 1993 issues asked their readers to vote for the game of the year.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

The winners of the Electronic Gaming Monthly Game of the Year are chosen by the magazine's editors.

Readers choice

In addition to their Editors' Choice Awards, Electronic Gaming Monthly also handed out Readers' Choice Awards voted by the magazine's readers.

Empire

The winners of the Empire Game of the Year are chosen by the site's editors.

Entertainment Weekly

The winners of the Entertainment Weekly Game of the Year are chosen by the site's editors.

Eurogamer

The winners of the Eurogamer Game of the Year are chosen by the site's editors.

Famitsu Awards

The Grand Prize winners of the annual Famitsu Awards, voted by the magazine's readers. An annual award ceremony is held every year.

G4

The winners of G4's annual "Videogame Deathmatch" or "G-phoria" polls. The 2011 "Videogame Deathmatch" poll involved 500,000 votes.

Gamasutra

The winners of the Gamasutra Game of the Year are chosen by Gamasutra editors. In 2012, the editors only gave a top 10 list and in 2013 a top 5 list.

The Game Awards (Formerly: Spike Video Game Awards)

The winners of the Spike Video Game Awards, hosted by Spike between 2003 and 2013, awarded the Game of the Year using an advisory council featuring over 20 journalists from media outlets. The show's title was changed to VGX in 2013 before Spike TV dropped the show entirely. It was replaced by The Game Awards in 2014.

Game Developers Choice Awards

The Game Developers Choice Awards are chosen by registered game developers and unveiled at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

Game Informer

The winners of the Game Informer Game of the Year are chosen by Game Informer editors. During their first years of publication they would give awards for the best game on each console available at the time, occasionally giving an award to the overall best game of the year.

Readers choice

In addition to the editor's picks, Game Informer also hosts a poll for the Readers' GOTY.

Game Revolution

The winner of the Game Revolution Community Choice Game of the Year award, but in 2013 the editors chose the Game of the Year.

GameFan Golden Megawards

The winners of GameFan's Golden Megawards were chosen by editors.

GameFAQs

GameFAQs' annual Game of the Year is chosen by its readers.

GamePro

The winners of the GamePro Game of the Year are chosen by GamePro editors. In the 1990s, the winners were chosen by editors from 1993 to 1995, and by readers for 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997 and 1998. Since 2011, the winners of GamePro Game of the Year are chosen by GamePro TV.

GameRankings

GameRankings ranks games according to an average of their review score across multiple sources. The highest for each year are based on 20 reviews.

Games

The winners of the Games magazine Game of the Year award are chosen by Games editors. Electronic games are covered separately on the publication's annual Games 100 list.

GameSpot

The winners of the GameSpot Game of the Year are chosen by GameSpot editors.

Readers choice

In addition to the editor's picks, GameSpot also hosts a poll for the Readers' GOTY.

GameSpy

The winners of the GameSpy Game of the Year are chosen by GameSpy editors.

GamesRadar

GamesRadar holds a Platinum Chalice Awards feature each year, as part of that, the Game of the Year chosen by the editors are:

Gamest Awards

The Japanese Gamest magazine was published from 1986 to 1999, and held the Gamest Award ceremonies every year, focusing exclusively on arcade games. The winners of the Grand Prize awards were chosen by voters.

GamesTM

The title chosen by GamesTM as the year's best game.

Giant Bomb

The winners of the Giant Bomb Game of the Year are chosen by Giant Bomb editors.

Golden Joystick Awards

The Golden Joystick Awards is the second oldest gaming award ceremony and is the longest running video game award. The inaugural ceremony took place in 1984 in London's Berkeley Square.

As of 2014, it is the biggest video game award show in terms of the number of votes cast; over nine million votes were cast for the 2014 ceremony.

Good Game

The winners of the Good Game Game of the Year awards are chosen by both the Good Game team and their forum community.

IGN

IGN's game of the year award is chosen by all the editors at IGN and are announced mid-January.

Readers choice

In addition to the editor's picks, IGN also hosts a poll for the Readers' GOTY. IGN, considered the world's largest gaming website, attracted 300,000 votes for its "Best of 2011" Readers' Choice awards.

Inside Gaming Awards

Machinima also hosts its own awards show, the Inside Gaming Awards, annually in Los Angeles. The awards show celebrates the biggest developers and achievements in the video-games industry, and features top gaming choices by viewers and the staff of Inside Gaming.

Japan Game Awards (Formerly: CESA Awards)

The winners of the Grand Award annually given by the Japan Game Awards, formerly known as the CESA Awards, since 1996. There are some years where two games shared the Grand Award.

Joystiq

The winners of the Joystiq Game of the Year are chosen by Joystiq editors.

Kotaku

Over the years, Kotaku has been refining how it selects its Game of the Year. Currently, it involves a debate which starts with the Kotaku editors determining the four most defendable candidates for the award. Editors are then given time to play all the games, and for each of the candidates, an appropriate editor is determined to make his case behind it in front of a panel who also raise questions. The results of these debates are given to the readers, who then also have the chance to make their own opinions felt. To make the final decision, the Kotaku staff members reexamine their arguments, and the winner is determined from a vote between the editors in late January.

Metacritic

The winners of the Metacritic Game of the Year are determined by the game with the highest score garnered from an average of weighted review scores from various sources. Each year, Metacritic announce the highest in an official award.

MMGN

MMGN's annual Community Game of the Year poll is 100% community driven. The semi-finals allow registered members to choose up to three games for each genre, and award up to nine points across the three games, but no more than 5 points for one game. The top 5 games from each genre with the most points are then added to final polls, where each member gets one vote per genre.

MobyGames

The winners of the MobyGames Game of the Year are determined by the game with the highest average of review scores from various sources.

NAVGTR Awards

The NAVGTR Awards are handed out by the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers.

New York Times

The winners of The New York Times Game of the Year are chosen by New York Times editors.

Oh!X

Japanese computer game magazine Oh!X was active from 1982 to 1995. Game of the Year awards were handed out to the following games.

Omni

The games chosen as the year's best by Omni magazine, which was active from 1978 to 1995.

Polygon

Polygon's Game of the Year is chosen by its staff.

ScrewAttack

The winners of ScrewAttack's annual Top 10 Games poll.

Slant Magazine

The winners of Slant Magazine are chosen by its editors in a "Top 25".

Softalk

In 1981, Softalk held one of the first reader polls on popular home computer software, released up until 1980.

SXSW Gaming Awards

The winners of the SXSW Gaming Awards, started in 2014, are judged by the SXSW Gaming Advisory Board, which is composed of over 40 industry experts that are well-versed in the industry.

TecMundo Games (Formerly: Baixaki Jogos)

The winners of the TecMundo Games GOTY are chosen by editors.

Time

The winners of the Time magazine Game of the Year are chosen by Time magazine editors.

VSDA Awards

The Video Software Dealers Association's VSDA Awards for home entertainment handed out awards for the best video games of the year, which are listed here.

X-Play

The winners of the X-Play Game of the Year were chosen by X-Play editors. The show ended in January 2013.

Yahoo! Games

The winners of the Yahoo! Games Game of the Year are chosen by Yahoo! Games editors.