Found this cool website that tracks all of the game of the year awards throughout the years:
https://gotypicks.blogspot.com/
They've been tracking games since 2003 - the previous winners were:
2003 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
2004 Half-Life 2
2005 Resident Evil 4
2006 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007 Bioshock
2008 Fallout 3
2009 Uncharted 2
2010 Red Dead Redemption
2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2012 The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series
2013 The Last of Us
2014 Dragon Age Inquisition
2015 The Witcher III Wild Hunt
2016 Uncharted 4
2017 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2018 God of War
Current Standings:
God of War - 189
The Critics' Picks - 121
The Readers' Picks - 68
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 130
The Critics' Picks - 96
The Readers' Picks - 34
Marvel's Spider-Man - 16
The Critics' Picks - 16
The Readers' Picks -
Celeste - 7
Fortnite Battle Royale - 4
Monster Hunter: World - 4
Return of the Obra Dinn - 4
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 4
Tetris Effect - 4
Astro Bot Rescue Mission - 2
Florence - 2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - 2
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - 1
Frostpunk - 1
Subnautica - 1
Two Point Hospital - 1
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life - 1
11-11: Memories Retold - 1
God Of War is now tied with Zelda: Breath Of The Wild for 4th most awarded GOTY in history:
1 - The Witcher 3 257
2 - The Last Of Us 249
3 - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 227
4T - Zelda: Breath of the Wild 189
4T - God of War 189
6 - Uncharted 4 165
7 - GTA V 160
8 - Dragon Age: Inquisition 134
9 - Red Dead Redemption 2 130
10T - Uncharted 2 111
10T - Red Dead Redemption 111
It's a pretty cool site- been digging through the years looking at the great gaming history. They've got genre awards broken down as well.
Here are the official rules from the website:
Rules
1. Video Game Awards Only - The Video Game includes Console games,
PC games, Handheld games, and Indie games, but not Mac games, Kids games, Free games, etc.
a. A game must be an original title but includes an expansion pack.
2. Professional Awards Only - The Media include Sites, Magazines, Newspapers, Publications, Broadcastings, but not Blogs have a staff of one.
a. Journalists that belong to the Media must be professional.
b. A web site must have it's own domain name.
c. A personal site like the one-man blog is not included.
d. A user community site that consists of bulletin boards alone, is not included.
e. Exceptions to clause 'd' are as follows;
* NeoGAF - a video game industry discussion community.
* GameFAQs - a site that helps people either defeat a game, become more skilled at it, or provides information about it.
f. A forum poll shall be regarded as GOTY Awards provided the results are officially announced on behalf of the media. But in principle at least, that is not included.
g. A student-operated newspaper is not included.
3. All-Format GOTY Awards Only - But a single GOTY pick must be a single title, except for a tie.
a. A tie is the result in competitions where there is either no winner or multiple winners, so it means multiple titles selected by agreement of all editors in the media.
b. Awards include rankings of games like best games of the year.