Meta Awards Every Game of the Year award, counted
Menu

HomeStatisticsAwards per year

Statistics

How many Game of the Year awards are given out each year?

The census grew from 40 tracked awards out of 40 outlets in 2003 to a peak of 765 awards from 683 outlets in 2025. That growth is the single most important thing to know before comparing any two seasons — the total measures how much of the world was being counted, not how exciting the year was.

  • 765Peak · 2025
  • 388Average per full year
  • 683Most outlets voting (2025)
  • 23Fully documented years

Awards per year

Every tracked award, stacked by who voted: media outlets against readers' and community votes. Seasons up to 2021 come from the archived census; 2022 onward is reconstructed award by award, which is why the Sourcing column below matters as much as the totals. Only 2000, 2001, 2002 still falls short of census breadth.

02004006002000 · Media outlets: 7 of 72000 · Readers' choice: 0 of 720002001 · Media outlets: 7 of 72001 · Readers' choice: 0 of 72002 · Media outlets: 10 of 102002 · Readers' choice: 0 of 102003 · Media outlets: 37 of 402003 · Readers' choice: 3 of 4020032004 · Media outlets: 54 of 612004 · Readers' choice: 7 of 612005 · Media outlets: 58 of 682005 · Readers' choice: 10 of 682006 · Media outlets: 100 of 1182006 · Readers' choice: 18 of 11820062007 · Media outlets: 148 of 1632007 · Readers' choice: 15 of 1632008 · Media outlets: 186 of 2132008 · Readers' choice: 27 of 2132009 · Media outlets: 193 of 2262009 · Readers' choice: 33 of 22620092010 · Media outlets: 264 of 3042010 · Readers' choice: 40 of 3042011 · Media outlets: 331 of 4122011 · Readers' choice: 81 of 4122012 · Media outlets: 343 of 4012012 · Readers' choice: 58 of 40120122013 · Media outlets: 426 of 5452013 · Readers' choice: 119 of 5452014 · Media outlets: 348 of 4412014 · Readers' choice: 93 of 4412015 · Media outlets: 363 of 4822015 · Readers' choice: 119 of 48220152016 · Media outlets: 359 of 4822016 · Readers' choice: 123 of 4822017 · Media outlets: 340 of 4622017 · Readers' choice: 122 of 4622018 · Media outlets: 384 of 5172018 · Readers' choice: 133 of 51720182019 · Media outlets: 360 of 4722019 · Readers' choice: 112 of 4722020 · Media outlets: 472 of 6512020 · Readers' choice: 179 of 6512021 · Media outlets: 337 of 4512021 · Readers' choice: 114 of 45120212022 · Media outlets: 488 of 6062022 · Readers' choice: 118 of 6062023 · Media outlets: 404 of 5462023 · Readers' choice: 142 of 5462024 · Media outlets: 413 of 5092024 · Readers' choice: 96 of 5092025 · Media outlets: 568 of 7652025 · Readers' choice: 197 of 7652025

Media outletsReaders' choice

Raw totals are not comparable across years.

The original tracker followed ever more outlets over time, so a 2004 winner could never reach a 2020 winner's count. Cross-year questions belong to the award share, which the records page uses and explains — see also the methodology. Counts on this page tally the stored award rows; season pages cite the source's published year totals, which can sit a few awards higher (the documented reconciliation gap of about 0.7%).

The controlling table

How to read this as a health check of the database: outlets voting should move smoothly against neighbouring years — a sudden dip inside 2003–2025 would mean lost coverage, not a quiet season. Awards per outlet should stay near 1.0–1.3 (one editorial vote per outlet, plus readers' votes and ties); a spike would point at duplicate rows. Sourcing shows how the season was assembled — archive census, rows from a cited aggregator, or awards we sourced one by one (see methodology); a season built from thin sourcing deserves more scepticism than its total suggests. Partial years carry only what we can document so far.

Year Awards Media Readers Outlets voting Countries Awards / outlet Sourcing Coverage
2000770721.00aggregated 71% · sourced 29%Partial
2001770721.00sourced 57% · aggregated 43%Partial
2002101001021.00sourced 60% · aggregated 40%Partial
2003403734061.00archive 95% · sourced 5%Full census
20046154760121.02archive 90% · sourced 10%Full census
200568581066141.03archive 91% · sourced 9%Full census
200611810018116141.02archive 96% · sourced 4%Full census
200716314815162171.01archive 98% · sourced 2%Full census
200821318627211231.01archive 98% · sourced 2%Full census
200922619333224321.01archive 97% · sourced 3%Full census
201030426440303341.00archive 98% · sourced 2%Full census
201141233181411401.00archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
201240134358398401.01archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
2013545426119537451.01archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
201444134893437411.01archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
2015482363119477481.01archive 100% · sourced <1%Full census
2016482359123471491.02archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
2017462340122447471.03archive 100% · sourced <1%Full census
2018517384133498541.04archive 100% · sourced <1%Full census
2019472360112456511.04archive 100% · sourced <1%Full census
2020651472179566591.15archive 99% · sourced 1%Full census
2021451337114386481.17archive 98% · sourced 2%Full census
2022606488118511581.19aggregated 95% · sourced 4% · archive 1%Full census
2023546404142459491.19aggregated 97% · sourced 3%Full census
202450941396436451.17aggregated 97% · sourced 3%Full census
2025765568197683591.12aggregated 97% · sourced 3%Full census