Warhammer 40K Boltgun not making the shooter shortlist is a shame, though I suppose it makes sense as boomer shooters are a relatively niche subgenre.
Nice to see Trine 5 make the puzzle game shortlist though.

Thank you!!

2.25% separated them. Third was:

Best Action Game of 2023

From the most one-sided (Best Platformer) to the closest award this year - just 0.070% of the vote separate the top two. One vote really is all it takes to decide an award sometimes!

Wowza!  Has there ever been a closer 1st/2nd finish in VGChartz's GOTY history?

Probably not, though I don't have the older spreadsheets to hand. The only year where we had more votes was last year, and the closest result then was 1.085% separating the top two. 

Best Adventure Game of 2023

Six games made it through to Final Voting for this award, and they all got a decent chunk of votes. That meant first place managed to take the trophy with 30.09% of the vote. Second place received 25.665%.

Best Action/Adventure Game of 2023

You might expect this to be very one-sided given there was a Zelda game this year and the community consistently votes its predecessor as the best game of all time in the Greatest Games Event. But it was a packed year for the genre, so the vote divided quite a bit. First place ended up with 42.19%, second 23.035%, and third 16.015%.

Nice. Just glad to see 3rd place was what I was expecting.

This category is so stacked with amazing games. Could have easily been a Game of the Year shortlist to be honest (well, throw in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Mario Wonder too. But that’s beside the point).

Best Strategy Game of 2023

The winner took almost half of the vote here (49.575%), so this was mostly a race for the runner-up spot between the other games. Ultimately that runner-up got 20.465%.