Best Fighting Game of 2023

I mentioned that Best Platformer was the most one-sided contest this year. The second most one-sided was Best Fighter, which surprised me a bit given there were two particularly big releases in the genre this year, so more potential for competition. I expected them to be fairly evenly divided, but they weren't: the winner managed 68.095% of the combined vote, the runner-up just 23.22%.

I'm not suprised since SF6 had a lot more buzz and an excellent reception. It probably also helps that it's been twice as long since the last game in that series than MK which makes it a bigger event. I kind of wish SF and Tekken had released in the same year because that might have been an interesting showdown.

Best Compilation of 2023

Name recognition vs positive (& negative) word of mouth.

First place here received 37.5% of the overall vote, second got 26.74%, and third finished on 17.45%.

I was happy with most of the winner's. Though my biggest disappointment was that halo 2 did not win.

Best Simulation Game of 2023

This one very much mirrored the voting for Best Strategy, with a clear winner (46.705%) and the rest fighting over the scraps.

Best VR Game of 2023

The least popular award this year (65.46% of respondents voted on this category); no doubt a reflection of the barrier to entry for VR. There was almost a four way tie on the staff side, which was broken by the community very much favouring the eventual winner.

Best RPG of 2023

From the six finalists the winner here secured a third of the vote. The staff and community disagreed on which of the rest should get the runner-up spot; in the end it was the staff pick that got the silver medal on a combined 22.635% of the vote.

Best DLC/Expansion of 2023

Some split voting here, with five of the final seven getting over 10% of the vote. But it came down to a clear fight between two expansions; the staff narrowly voted one way, the community narrowly the other. The community pick won out with 25.03% of the vote.

One interesting little note: two Mario Kart Booster Passes made it to Final Voting. Had their vote shares been combined they would've ended up with 14.35% - just about enough for third place.

Best Indie Game of 2023

Best Indie is one of the biggest awards in terms of number of nominees each year, and from a huge list of over 75 games at the start, 9 made it to Final Voting. Despite the potential for some very split voting, there was very much a clear winner this year - that game managed 39.13% of the vote, while the runner-up got 18.835%.

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