Home › Articles
52 stories, every number computed from 8,976 awards. Latest, 27 September 2026:
Nobody decides it. 680 outlets each chose their own in 2025 — editors, readers' polls, juries, developers — and the winner is the game most of them named.
52 articles, newest first. The date is when the piece was published — which has nothing to do with the season it examines, so a look at 1977 may well sit above one about 2025.
Games you can play on an Xbox hold 5,834 Game of the Year awards. Games Xbox published itself hold 326, and have won 0 of the 23 census seasons.
Every answer online says "dozens". The real figure is 3,360 outlets that have handed out at least one, and 680 in the 2025 season alone.
Our co-op search listed 602 games, but only 42 were ever checked by hand - so a blank looked exactly like a "no". It has been removed.
Sony's games have collected 2,055 Game of the Year awards, Nintendo's 830. By season titles the gap looks far smaller — and that is the number to distrust.
Red Dead Redemption 2 collected 179 Game of the Year awards in 2018 — 34.7% of the season — and still lost to God of War.
The whole of the 1990s leaves 22 Game of the Year awards we can point at a source for. The 2025 season alone leaves 760.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the 2025 season with 71.1% of every award handed out. Whether that is a landslide depends on what a normal year looks like.
4 season titles from 7 games — and not one of them a landslide. The most-awarded studio wins by never missing, not by dominating.
Naughty Dog leads with 913 across 7 games — but Sandfall Interactive beat every studio with 1 release.
1,901 of 3,360 outlets voted exactly once. Only 213 lasted a decade — and 12 have been voting for twenty years.
They split in 7 of 23 seasons — 6 times before 2013, once since. Cyberpunk 2077 is the readers' game of the era.
Halo 2 over Half-Life 2, Mass Effect 2 over Red Dead Redemption: every season the public crowned a different game, ranked by how deep the revolt ran.
The Last of Us leads with 584 awards across 3 games — 97 series compared.
From 42 tracked awards in 2003 to 760 in 2025 — and why raw totals mislead.
Singapore backs the eventual winner only 26.9% of the time.
Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System took it with 61.9 million units of 83.9 million sold across 4 machines.
What an award total hides about where a game was liked.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took 55% worldwide but lost 12 of 39 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took 58% worldwide but lost 6 of 48 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
God of War took 51% worldwide but lost 20 of 54 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
2007 was decided by 2 awards — a lead of 4.2%.
Dragon Age: Inquisition took 32% worldwide but lost 16 of 41 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
PlayStation took it with 102.5 million units of 146.7 million sold across 4 machines.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took 52% worldwide but lost 11 of 30 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End took 40% worldwide but lost 19 of 49 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Red Dead Redemption took 37% worldwide but lost 17 of 33 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took 57% worldwide but lost 12 of 47 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
PlayStation 2 took it with 160.0 million units of 214.9 million sold across 4 machines.
2012: the winner took just 18.7% while 28 games won something.
Atari 2600 took it with 30.0 million units of 33.8 million sold across 2 machines.
Diehard Gamefan matched the consensus on 0% of its 13 picks.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took 34% worldwide but lost 9 of 14 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Half-Life 2 took 41% worldwide but lost 2 of 11 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
The Last of Us took 47% worldwide but lost 19 of 45 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System took it with 49.1 million units of 82.8 million sold across 3 machines.
Fallout 3 took 31% worldwide but lost 13 of 21 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Nintendo Switch took it with 156.6 million units of 369.0 million sold across 5 machines.
It Takes Two took 20% worldwide but lost 30 of 48 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Wii took it with 101.6 million units of 273.0 million sold across 3 machines.
PlayStation 5 took it with 95.3 million units of 130.3 million sold across 2 machines.
BioShock took 28% worldwide but lost 12 of 16 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
The Walking Dead: The Game took 19% worldwide but lost 29 of 38 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Magnavox Odyssey² took it with 2.0 million units of 2.0 million sold across 1 machines.
The Last of Us Part II took 50% worldwide but lost 16 of 58 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Resident Evil 4 took 55% worldwide but lost 7 of 13 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Death Stranding took 25% worldwide but lost 33 of 51 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic took 40% worldwide but lost 3 of 6 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Baldur's Gate 3 took 53% worldwide but lost 13 of 49 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took 71% worldwide but lost 7 of 59 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Elden Ring took 72% worldwide but lost 4 of 58 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Astro Bot took 36% worldwide but lost 18 of 45 countries. Every nation, region and outlet.
Updated 2 October 2026 · Source: the Meta Awards database, where every award row cites where it was published.