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The media outlets that never pick the winner

Among outlets with at least six tracked awards, Diehard Gamefan (United States) has the lowest agreement rate in the database: only 0% of its 13 Game of the Year picks matched the game that ended up with the most awards that season.

OutletCountry Awards given Agreed with the winner Its favourite game
Diehard GamefanUnited States130%Batman: Arkham Asylum
Noisy PixelUnited States110%Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Quarter to ThreeUnited States100%Agents of Mayhem
GameGrinUnited Kingdom90%Divinity: Original Sin II
Digitally DownloadedAustralia70%11-11: Memories Retold
Game Industry News Readers' ChoiceUnited States60%Fallout 4
SoundvenueDenmark60%DOOM
SiliconeraUnited States60%Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
SideQuestingUnited States1010.0%1000xResist
Game ChroniclesUnited States812.5%Alan Wake 2
Riot PixelsRussia812.5%BioShock Infinite
Brutal GamerUnited States812.5%BioShock Infinite
TCGSUnited Kingdom812.5%Astro Bot Rescue Mission
GAMINGbibleUnited Kingdom812.5%Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Sector.skSlovakia812.5%Cyberpunk 2077
AusGamersAustralia714.3%Assassin's Creed Valhalla
ForbesUnited States714.3%BioShock Infinite
Reno Gazette-JournalUnited States714.3%Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Gameswelt Readers' ChoiceGermany714.3%Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
PlayGround.ru Readers' ChoiceRussia714.3%Battlefield 1
Atomix.vgMexico714.3%Bloodborne
The Games MachineItaly714.3%Alan Wake 2
TIMEUnited States1915.8%80 Days
bit-techUnited Kingdom1216.7%Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
AmazonUnited States616.7%Journey
AreaGamesGermany616.7%Grand Theft Auto IV
PressFire.noNorway616.7%Bayonetta 2
Critically SaneUnited States616.7%Balatro
Saudi GamerSaudi Arabia616.7%Alan Wake 2
Gamereactor DeutschlandGermany616.7%Alien Isolation
Senses.seSweden616.7%Final Fantasy VII Remake
Les InrockuptiblesFrance616.7%A Space for the Unbound
The Free CheeseUnited States616.7%DOOM
USgamerUnited States616.7%Disco Elysium
HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech AwardsSingapore616.7%Bloodborne
Cubed3United Kingdom616.7%Final Fantasy VII Remake
GamerwebPoland616.7%Devil May Cry 5
IlVideogiocoItaly616.7%Assetto Corsa Competizione
EE Pocket-lint AwardsUnited Kingdom616.7%Balatro
PowerWave83Italy616.7%Baldur's Gate 3
OverplayBrazil616.7%God of War Ragnarök
GametrailersUnited States1118.2%Bloodborne
Eurogamer.netUnited Kingdom1118.2%Bloodborne
ENTER.coColombia1118.2%Assassin's Creed III
The GuardianUnited Kingdom1618.8%Animal Crossing: New Horizons
FamitsuJapan2520.0%Animal Crossing: New Leaf
GameShotSouth Korea2020.0%Batman: Arkham City
Pelit MagazineFinland2020.0%Cyberpunk 2077
The A.V. ClubUnited States1020.0%Balatro
UnwinnableUnited States1020.0%Celeste
GamAliveFrance1020.0%Alan Wake 2
Hey Poor PlayerUnited States1020.0%Baldur's Gate 3
Box Office Prophet - Calvin AwardsUnited States922.2%Batman: Arkham Asylum
MashableUnited States922.2%Alan Wake 2
4PlayerUnited States922.2%Bloodborne
GameFAQsUnited States2123.8%Borderlands 2
WiredUnited States1225.0%Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
CNETUnited States825.0%Balatro
IGN ItaliaItaly825.0%Death Stranding
Malditos NerdsArgentina825.0%Animal Crossing: New Horizons

An outlet disagreeing with the consensus is doing its job, not failing at it. These are the votes that make the count worth doing — if every publication picked the same game, one ceremony would be enough.

What the agreement rate is actually measuring

Across the 373 outlets with enough tracked picks to rank, the median agreement rate is 44.4%. So the typical outlet lines up with the eventual leader about half the time — which is roughly what a median winning share of around half the season implies. Agreement at that level is not conformity; it is two measurements of the same thing.

  • 44.4%Median agreement rate
  • 83Outlets agreeing under a third of the time
  • 21Agreeing more than four times in five
  • 373Outlets with enough picks to rank

Read the bottom of the table with the count beside it. An outlet with six tracked awards can reach 0% by disagreeing six times, and six decisions is a house style at best — it is not a track record. The outlets worth arguing with are the ones low on this list and high on the award count, because they have disagreed repeatedly and in public.

Disagreement travels in groups

Contrarian picks are not scattered randomly across the world. The outlets at the top of this list cluster by country, because a national press reads a season through the releases and the platforms its own readers own — which is the same effect measured from the other side on the countries that disagree with the world.

  1. United States56
  2. United Kingdom19
  3. Russia6
  4. Italy5
  5. Australia4
  6. Germany3

This counts outlets, not people. A country with many small sites will appear more often than one with a few large ones, and nothing here says a nation's readers disagreed — only that the publications we can source did. The coverage is uneven by country in ways that shape this ranking.

Updated 2 October 2026 · Source: the Meta Awards database, where every award row cites where it was published.