Hello and welcome to VGChartz’s 18th annual Game of the Year Awards!

As always the winners will be chosen by a combination of community and staff voting, using a two-stage voting system:

1. The first stage is called Preliminary Voting. It lasts five days and the idea behind it is for community voting alone to reduce the often lengthy lists of games for each award down to a much smaller list of Nominees. Games that receive 5% or more of the vote during Preliminary Voting will go through to the second stage.
2. This second stage is called Final Voting. Final Voting will determine both the final Shortlist of games to be featured in each award article and, of course, the Winner. It will last around 10-14 days, just like the old system of voting, and will use a mixture of user and staff voting (with the usual 50/50 split in terms of weighting).

Here’s the link to our Preliminary Voting Form. All you need to take part is a Google account:

>>LINK<<

As a reminder this first round of voting will not determine any winners – be sure to come back in a few days’ time to take part in Final Voting and help decide which title from 2024 will be joining this illustrious list of former winners:

Previous Winners
   

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
  

Elden Ring
  

Metroid Dread
  

The Last of Us Part II
  

Resident Evil 2
 

God of War
 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
 

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
 

Rocket League
 

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
  

Super Mario 3D World
  

Journey
  

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  

Mass Effect 2
 

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
 

LittleBigPlanet
 

BioShock

FAQs:

Q - When does voting close?

A – Preliminary Voting closes on Saturday 14th December.

Q - Can I change my vote/edit my voting form after submitting it?

A - Yes, you can edit your voting form up until we close voting.

Q - Do I have to select a game for every award?

A - Nope. Select your favourite for as many or as few categories as you wish.

Q - Why is game XXXXXXXX only listed for one of its genres and not the others?

A - Our past experiment where we allowed games to be nominated for all their various genres didn't work out well in practice. Everyone just voted for their favourite game in all its genres. Because each game could ultimately only be picked for its most popular genre, this resulted in many wasted votes (over half in some genres), and also meant some games made the Shortlists with just a handful of votes. In order to avoid that, each game will only be listed for one genre.

Q – But you picked the wrong genre!

A – Let us know if a game should be listed under a different genre (ideally with a link to back it up, such as the game's own website or a storefront listing) and we’ll correct it.

Q - You forgot game XXXXXXX, you idiots.

A - Hundreds of games release every year and, while we try to catch all of the best ones when compiling the Game of the Year lists for voting, we invariably miss some. If a game you wish to vote for is missing then post in this thread and we'll add it as soon as possible. Do note that games must have released in the west for the very first time in 2024 though. Remasters and Ports (enhanced or otherwise) also aren't eligible for any awards besides Best Remaster and Most Disappointing.

Q - Where's The Elder Scrolls VI/The Witcher Polaris/XXXX for Most Anticipated?

A - For the Most Anticipated of Award, only games that have firm release date/window for next year have been included. That is why the likes of The Elder Scrolls VI aren't on the list. If you think a major game is missing from this list despite having a release date for next year then provide a good source announcing a solid 2025 release and we'll add it.

Q - When and how will the Winners be announced?

A - Winners will be announced in a series of articles (as well as in a thread I'll post) that we'll start publishing in early January. But remember, this is only the Preliminary Voting stage – be sure to come back in a week or so to take part in Final Voting and help determine the winners!

Finally, if you notice any errors (e.g. a 2023 game that somehow slipped onto the list, or a game being listed twice by accident), please let me know. The lists seem to get bigger and harder to manage each year!

Stalker 2 should be worthy of being nominated for GOTY.

Also, Silent Hill 2 for Action Adventure? lol that's the last thing I would consider the game to be, but I guess there's no horror genre.

Added S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl to Overall.

Despite most of the year feeling like a bridge between 2023 and 2025 as far as blockbuster games go, there were some gems. RPG specifically looks pretty stacked.

This window seems a bit tight imo.  Could this be expanded to after the weekend?  Would be fair to give a little leeway what with Indiana Jones releasing only 2 days ago.

Did my part.

But damn, dude, that RPG category was overloaded. There were so many great games and I felt bad about the ones I didn't vote for. I could have done a top ten in that category alone.

Best lead performance has the same entry twice (Max/Maxine from Life is Strange).

Oops. Thanks for letting me know! I can't delete one because they already have votes, but I'll be sure to combine the two when tallying them for the next round.