- 2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition (TGA and DICE), Dark Souls II (GJA), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (GDCA), Destiny (BAFTA)
- 2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (TGA, GJA and GDCA), Fallout 4 (DICE and BAFTA)
- 2016: Overwatch (TGA, DICE and GDCA), Dark Souls III (GJA), Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (BAFTA)
- 2017: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (TGA, GJA, DICE and GDCA), What Remains of Edith Finch (BAFTA)
- 2018: God of War (TGA, DICE, BAFTA and GDCA), Fortnite (GJA)
- 2019: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (TGA), Resident Evil 4 (GJA), Untitled Goose Game (DICE and GDCA), Outer Wilds (BAFTA)
- 2020: The Last of Us Part II (TGA and GJA), Hades (DICE, BAFTA and GDCA)
- 2021: It Takes Two (TGA and DICE), Inscryption (GDCA), Resident Evil Village (GJA), Returnal (BAFTA)
- 2022: Elden Ring (TGA, GJA, DICE and GDCA), Vampire Survivors (BAFTA)
- 2023: Baldur’s Gate 3 (TGA, DICE, BAFTA, GJA and GDCA)
Legend: TGA - The Game Awards, GJA - Golden Joystick Awards, BAFTA - British Academy of Film and Television Awards, DICE - DICE Awards, GDCA - Game Developers Choice Awards.
This list doesn’t include awards before 2014, because The Game Awards launched that year.
Pretty crazy that BG3 unanimously won despite the existence of ToTK.
It’s an unpopular opinion but as I see it, TOTK is wildly overrated, as is BotW. Yes, they are very polished and certainly good games but the 10/10 across the board made me doubt my sanity. The latest Zeldas are basically Ubisoft open worlds with a couple mechanics borrowed from Garry’s mod. It’s fun the first few hours but the lack of variety and absence of any writing really make it dull IMHO. I managed to finish BotW for the novelty and the occasional detail (the lightning hitting you when holding metal is a nice touch) but I’d die if my life depended on me remembering any character interactions. BG3 Otoh, not only is it also very polished, it has sublime combat and absolutely unforgettable characters. Truly a masterpiece.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel Tears of the Kingdom is overrated. Yes, it has some welcome quality-of-life improvements, and yes, it has more content, but I find the characters less interesting, the encounters less inspired, and the environments a bit repetitive compared to its predecessor. Every time I pick it up again, I get bored within a couple hours and go back to another play-through of Breath of the Wild.
I would vote for Baldur’s Gate 3 over TotK without hesitation.