The Game Awards 2023 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Game Awards 2023
Host	Geoff Keighley
Date	December 7, 2023 (2023-12-07)
Country	United States
< 2022 The Game Awards 2024 >

The Game Awards 2023 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2023. It was the tenth show hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, held with a live audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2023. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. The event was live streamed across multiple online platforms globally.

It featured musical performances from Old Gods of Asgard and presentations from celebrity guests, including Timothée Chalamet, Christopher Judge, and Matthew McConaughey. Baldur's Gate 3 led the show with nine nominations and six wins, including Game of the Year and Best Performance for Neil Newbon. Several new games were announced during the show, including Marvel's Blade, OD, and Visions of Mana.

Background

Geoff Keighley (left) hosted the main show while Sydnee Goodman (right) hosted the preshow.

As with previous iterations of The Game Awards, the 2023 show was hosted and produced by Canadian games journalist Geoff Keighley. He returned as an executive producer alongside Kimmie Kim, and Richard Preuss and LeRoy Bennett returned as director and creative director, respectively. Sydnee Goodman returned as host of the 30-minute preshow, titled Opening Act. The presentation took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2023, and was live streamed across multiple online platforms globally, including Facebook, TikTok, Twitch, X, and YouTube.

Public tickets became available for purchase on November 6, and sold out within a week, quicker than any previous year. The show is increased security following stage interruptions at the previous ceremony in December 2022 and Gamescom's Opening Night Live in August 2023. Keighley said the show and preshow aimed for a collective three-hour runtime, like its predecessor. The Game Awards 2023 was the fourth show to feature Future Class, a list of 50 individuals from across the video game industry who best represent its future. The list was announced on December 5, featuring individuals like Marvel's Midnight Suns writer Emma Kidwell and accessibility consultant Ross Minor.

Announcements

According to Keighley, the show avoided the term "world premiere" for new announcements, instead treating all content equally. Announcements on released and upcoming games were made for:

New games announced included:

Winners and nominees

Nominees were announced on November 13, 2023. Any game released for public consumption on or before November 17 was eligible for consideration. The nominees were compiled by a jury panel composed of members from over 100 media outlets globally. Specialized juries decided the nominees for categories such as accessibility, adaptation, and esports. Winners were determined between the jury (90 percent) and public voting (10 percent); the latter was held via the official website and Discord server until December 6. The exception is the Players' Voice award, fully nominated and voted-on by the public, for which voting opened on November 27. According to Keighley, first-day website voting saw a 73% increase over the previous year.

The Game Awards partnered with Nighttimes and Studio 568 to create an in-game hub world in Fortnite, available from November 14, allowing players to vote for their favorite user-created islands among ten nominees; the winner was announced during the ceremony. Keighley had been seeking to create more in-game events since hosting a live show in Fortnite in 2019, and sought to allow in-game live viewership of the show in the future. He felt it was a more effective advertising technique for the show than traditional marketing like billboards. According to Keighley, the hub world surpassed one million plays within three days, with more than 875,000 unique players.

Awards

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ().

Media

Swen Vincke accepted Game of the Year for Baldur's Gate 3.

Sam Lake accepted Best Game Direction and Best Narrative for Alan Wake 2.

Neil Newbon won Best Performance for his role as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3.

Shuhei Yoshida accepted Games for Impact for Tchia.

Eiji Aonuma accepted Best Action/Adventure Game for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Doug Bowser accepted Best Family Game for Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Neil Druckmann accepted Best Adaptation for The Last of Us alongside Asad Qizilbash.

Esports and creators

Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok won Best Esports Athlete.

Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam of Team Vitality publicly requested the removal of his Best Esports Coach nomination as he had not coached any professional games in 2023.

Games with multiple nominations and awards

Multiple nominations

Baldur's Gate 3 led the show with nine nominations each, followed by Alan Wake 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with eight. Nintendo led the publishers with 15 nominations, followed by Sony Interactive Entertainment with 10. In addition to video game publishers, PlayStation Productions received three nominations for its film and television products in Best Adaptation, and Sony Pictures Television received two.

Multiple awards

Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) led the show with six wins, followed by Alan Wake 2 (Epic Games) with three, and Forza Motorsport (Xbox Game Studios) with two. Nintendo also won three awards, while Capcom and Square Enix won two.

Presenters and performers

Presenters

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or introduced trailers. All other awards were presented by Keighley or Goodman.

Performers

The following individuals or groups performed musical numbers. Pedro Eustache, who became known as "Flute Guy" during the 2022 ceremony, returned to perform as part of the Game Awards Orchestra.