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Home › Seasons › GOTY 2021 › Returnal

2021

Returnal: 22 Game of the Year awards

No: Returnal collected 22 Game of the Year awards in 2021 and finished No. 7; the season went to It Takes Two with 89. The Game Awards named It Takes Two its Game of the Year.

Returnal is a 2021 third-person shooter game developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5. A port to Windows developed by Climax Studios was released on 15 February 2023.

Description via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Returnal finished #7 in the 2021 race, with 22 awards from media outlets and reader votes worldwide.

  • 22Total awards
  • 19Media outlets
  • 3Readers' choice
  • 12Countries

Also in the 2021 season: It Takes Two (89), Resident Evil Village (62), Forza Horizon 5 (54), Deathloop (40), Metroid Dread (37), Halo Infinite (27), Psychonauts 2 (19), Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (19) · full results

Quick answers

How many Game of the Year awards did Returnal win?

Returnal won 22 Game of the Year awards in the 2021 season — 4.9% of every award tracked that season. 19 came from editorial picks and 3 from readers' polls, across 12 countries.

Did Returnal win Game of the Year?

No. It finished No. 7 in 2021, behind It Takes Two, which collected 89.

Game facts

  • Single-playerYes
  • Co-opNo
  • Split screenNo
  • MultiplayerNo
  • Online multiplayerNo
  • Released30 April 2021
  • DeveloperHousemarque
  • PublisherSony Interactive Entertainment
  • third-person shooter
  • roguelike
  • science fiction video game
  • PlayStation 5
  • Microsoft Windows

Where the awards came from

CountryAwards
United Kingdom6
United States5
Italy2
Czechia1
France1
India1
Argentina1
Indonesia1
Finland1
Norway1
Iceland1
Australia1

Every outlet that named it Game of the Year

OutletCountry YearSource
AlzaCzechia2021Internet Archive
BAFTA Games AwardsUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive
Den of GeekUnited States2021Internet Archive
DualShockers ReadersUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive
Easy AlliesUnited States2021Internet Archive
EveryeyeItaly2021Internet Archive
Gamekult ReadersFrance2021Internet Archive
GameSpewUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive
Gaming RouteIndia2021Internet Archive
GeekyArgentina2021Internet Archive
Jagat PlayIndonesia2021Internet Archive
MashableUnited States2021Internet Archive
Metro - GameCentralUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive
Metro - GameCentral ReadersUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive
MuropakettiFinland2021Internet Archive
NRKNorway2021Internet Archive
Nörd NorðursinsIceland2021Internet Archive
Popular ScienceUnited States2021Internet Archive
Press StartAustralia2021Internet Archive
The A.V. ClubUnited States2021Internet Archive
The Games MachineItaly2021Internet Archive
The GuardianUnited Kingdom2021Internet Archive

← Full 2021 results

Updated 13 October 2026 · Source: the Meta Awards database, where every award row cites where it was published.