Of this list, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gets my vote. It's a platforming masterpiece and in my top 5 ever.
If we could pick any game from the 2010s, it's Stardew Valley (the best game ever to me). But we can't so I'm just bringing up my pick.

My game of the decade has to be Astrobot: Rescue Mission. It's so full of charm and joy, plus together with Moss proves VR is far more than (horror) fps and can turn a 40+ year old back into a kid.

Yet from what's in the poll I'm undecided between The Last of Us, BotW and Dark Souls.

The Last of Us on its own wouldn't be gotd, yet part 2 cemented what part 1 started and elevates part 1 to new levels. Then the TV series on top.

BotW would be my gotd, yet TotK kinda diminishes my feeling for BotW, certainly diminishes me wanting to replay BotW despite slightly preferring it over TotK. These games are simply too big.

Dark Souls would be my gotd if not for 'suffering' of Souls like fatigue. Also no desire anymore to replay Dark Souls.


Undecided, no clear winner in my mind.

Breath of the Wild, for me. I can’t think of a better representative for the 2010s.

While my personal favourite is Super Mario Galaxy 2, Breath of the Wild deserves the title the most.
This game just destroyed all other open world games for me (in terms of exploration).

Breath of the Wild easily takes the spot.

My order of preference for these 10 games today:

1. The Last of Us
2. Doom
3. Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Journey
7. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
8. Super Mario Galaxy 2
9. Dark Souls
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt <-- Default ranking 'cause I haven't played it.

The Last of Us was literally the only VGC selection from this decade that was also mine. Nothing else here is even in the same ballpark for me really and I don't feel strongly about the order.

My actual top 35 favorites from the 2010s:

1. The Last of Us
2. Butterfly Soup
3. Gone Home
4. Crypt of the NecroDancer
5. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
6. Knights and Bikes
7. Celeste
8. What Remains of Edith Finch
9. Undertale
10. Portal 2
11. Papo & Yo
12. This War of Mine
13. Gato Roboto
14. Untitled Goose Game
15. Pony Island
16. Night in the Woods
17. Ori and the Blind Forest
18. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
19. Pyre
20. The Shrouded Isle
21. That Dragon, Cancer
22. Nier: Automata
23. Papers, Please
24. Inside
25. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
26. Cosmic Star Heroine
27. Hollow Knight
28. Cuphead
29. Little Nightmares
30. God of War
31. A Case of Distrust
32. Return of the Obra Dinn
33. Her Story
34. The Stanley Parable
35. Rayman Legends

Listing my top 35 instead of 10 from this decade because it was so much better to me than the others that anything less feels incomplete.

My top 20 favorites from the 2020s so far:

Since we're not doing formal 2020s threads like this, figured I'd share these picks here.

1. The Last of Us Part II
2. Perfect Tides
3. Butterfly Soup 2
4. Misericorde
5. Spiritfarer
6. Kentucky Route Zero*
7. Immortality
8. Freedom Planet 2
9. Pentiment
10. Hades
11. ScourgeBringer
12. Norco
13. Returnal
14. It Takes Two
15. A Short Hike
16. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
17. A Space for the Unbound
18. Psychonauts 2
19. Unsighted
20. There is No Game: Wrong Dimension

*Listing this as a 2020s game because the last chapter was completed in 2020.

Retrospective: My top 10 favorites from the 1990s:

1. Super Metroid
2. Chop Suey
3. Final Fantasy VI
4. The Longest Journey
5. Chrono Trigger
6. Out of This World
7. The Secret of Monkey Island
8. Day of the Tentacle
9. Final Fantasy VII
10. Grim Fandango

Retrospective: My top 10 favorites from the 2000s:

1. Metroid Prime
2. Portal
3. Beyond Good & Evil
4. Okami
5. Half-Life 2
6. Yume Nikki
7. Valkyria Chronicles
8. Shadow of the Colossus
9. Psychonauts
10. Chibi-Robo!

Most culturally impactful games, IMO, by decade:

1970s: Space Invaders
1980s: Super Mario Bros.
1990s: Doom
2000s: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2010s: Minecraft
2020s: Elden Ring

My favorite games by decade:

1970s: Zork
1980s: The Guardian Legend
1990s: Super Metroid
2000s: Metroid Prime
2010s: The Last of Us
2020s: The Last of Us Part II

Hmm, tough one. Resident Evil 2, The Last of Us, and Dark Souls are all pretty even for me. RE2 is the only one I voted for that won its year, The Last of Us is really well-rounded and will probably age best, and Dark Souls gave birth to one of my absolute favourite series (and genres) but is my least favourite entry.

The Last of Us

My favourite game from 2010s is Kerbal Space Program. Pure joy of constructing your rockets/airplanes/spaceships (or my fixation for several months at one point, SSTOs, single-stage-to-orbit) and then piloting them, gave me the most fun out of all games (KSP being game in broader sense) I've played in 2010s.

From the poll, for me there is very easy choice, Dark Souls - while Demon's was first, it was Dark that established Souls "genre" as we know it (Demon's lacked connecting tissue for its "dungeons" - think original LoZ idea with no overworld vs actual finished LoZ). But it was not only "genre" that was important, maybe even more important was idea that old school approach, without holding hands, and game being difficult, still appeals to a LOT of people sick of AAA devs constant lowering a gameplay bar. Great gameplay, great atmosphere and worlbuilding resulted in, what is really niche game, being widely recognized, both critically and sales wise.

What I consider GotD, without a competition, is Minecraft. There is no other game from 2010s that influenced so much both new generation of gamers and developers overall, and while sales usually don't tell much about quality (and its actually pretty good game), being the most sold game of all times, by far, has its own weight, and I would say, maybe even its own category.

What I expect to win, is, given the nature of site we're on, is BotW.

TLOU, The Witcher and BOTW in that order would be my top 3. SMGalaxy and Dark Souls fill the top 5.