The Game Awards 2022 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Game Awards 2022
Host	Geoff Keighley
Date	December 8, 2022 (2022-12-08)
Country	United States
Television coverage
Runtime	3 hours
< 2021 The Game Awards 2023 >

The Game Awards 2022 was a special event that celebrated the best video games of 2022. It was hosted by Geoff Keighley, who created The Game Awards. The show took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 8, 2022. Sydnee Goodman hosted a shorter show before the main event.

The show was streamed live online to over 40 different platforms. You could even watch it in IMAX theaters for the first time! Famous musicians like Halsey and Hozier performed. Many well-known guests, including Al Pacino and Pedro Pascal, also presented awards. A new award was added this year: Best Adaptation, for movies or TV shows based on video games.

God of War Ragnarök was a big winner, taking home six awards from its eleven nominations. It won for Best Story and Best Action-Adventure Game. The actor who plays Kratos, Christopher Judge, won Best Performance. The game's music composer, Bear McCreary, won Best Score and Music. Elden Ring was named Game of the Year. It also won Best Game Direction and Best Role Playing Game. Many new games were announced during the show, like Crash Team Rumble and Hades II. The first full video clip for The Super Mario Bros. Movie was also shown. The show had over 103 million viewers, which was a new record!

About the Show

Just like in past years, Geoff Keighley (left) hosted the main show. Sydnee Goodman (right) hosted the preshow.

Geoff Keighley hosted and produced The Game Awards 2022. Sydnee Goodman hosted the 30-minute preshow, called the Opening Act. The event was held in Los Angeles on December 8, 2022. It was streamed live on many online platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

For the first time since 2019, people could attend the show in person. About 1,000 tickets were sold to the public. Geoff Keighley wanted the show to feel more like a movie. He also aimed for a shorter show, about 2.5 hours long. This was to make sure viewers didn't get tired.

The show also partnered with IMAX for a special live event. This allowed people worldwide to watch and participate. Viewers could even see an exclusive gameplay video of the game Dead Space. During the show, Valve gave away a Steam Deck every minute to lucky viewers. Other rewards were also given to viewers on Twitch.

The Game Awards 2022 also featured the Future Class. This is a list of 50 people who are shaping the future of video games. A new award, Best Adaptation, was added this year. It celebrates movies, TV shows, and books based on video games. The Game Awards also worked with Discord for voting and special events.

New Game Announcements

New game announcements included a gameplay trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (top) and the reveal trailer for Death Stranding 2 (bottom).

Geoff Keighley said the show would feature over 50 games. About 30 to 40 of these were new updates for games already announced. The first video clip of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was shown.

Here are some of the games that showed new content:

And here are some brand new games that were announced:

Some fans were disappointed that there weren't many new announcements from Xbox. An Xbox marketing leader, Aaron Greenberg, said that Xbox had many announcements planned for 2023 instead.

Stage Incident

After Elden Ring won Game of the Year, a person unexpectedly went on stage. They stood with the game developers as they gave their speech. When the music started, the person went to the microphone and spoke briefly. Security quickly escorted the person off the stage. Geoff Keighley later said the person was questioned by police and security. This event got a lot of attention online. Many people felt it was unfair to the Elden Ring developers and took away from their special moment. The Game Awards later blurred the person's face in photos shared online.

Reports later said the person was a 15-year-old. The Los Angeles Times reported that future Game Awards events will have more security because of this incident.

Awards and Winners

The nominees for the awards were announced on November 14, 2022. Games released by November 18, 2022, could be considered. A group of over 100 media experts from around the world chose the nominees. The winners were decided by this expert group (90%) and public voting (10%). Public voting happened on the official website and Discord.

Voting was very popular this year! Over 55 million votes were submitted, which was a huge increase from the previous year. Geoff Keighley noted that the competition was very close between Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök. Christopher Judge gave a very long acceptance speech for his Best Performance award.

One special award, the Players' Voice, was voted on entirely by the public. Genshin Impact won this award. There were some discussions about whether players were trying to get in-game rewards for voting. However, journalists found no strong proof of this. Geoff Keighley said that this discussion showed why most awards are not decided only by public votes.

Award Categories

Winners are listed first, in bold letters, and marked with a double dagger ().

Video Games and Other Media

Hidetaka Miyazaki accepted Game of the Year and Best Game Direction for Elden Ring.

Bear McCreary won Best Score and Music for God of War Ragnarök.

Christopher Judge won Best Performance for his role as Kratos in God of War Ragnarök.

Ben Brode accepted Best Mobile Game for Marvel Snap.

Tony Huynh accepted Best Fighting Game for MultiVersus.

Esports and Creators

Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker won Best Esports Athlete.

Ludwig Ahgren won Content Creator of the Year.

Games with Many Nominations and Awards

God of War Ragnarök received the most nominations, with eleven. This tied the record for the most nominations in the show's history. Elden Ring followed with eight nominations.

God of War Ragnarök also won the most awards, with six wins. Elden Ring won four awards.

Presenters and Performers

Presenters

Al Pacino presented the first award for Best Performance.

Many famous people helped present awards or show new game trailers. Here are some of them:

Performers

Hozier (left) and Halsey (right) performed songs from God of War Ragnarök and Diablo IV, respectively.

These artists performed music during the show: