To the surprise of absolutely no one, Baldur’s Gate 3 has claimed the Game of the Year award in the 2023 Steam Awards, along with the crown for Outstanding Story-Rich Game. It probably would have won even more, but the Steam Awards rules limit games to nominations in a maximum of two categories, presumably to avoid any across-the-board ass-kickings.
The Steam Awards win comes on top of Game of the Year titles at The Game Awards and the Golden Joysticks, giving Baldur’s Gate 3 a proper Game of the Year trifecta—a GOAT of GOTYs, you might say. I never imagined when a new Baldur’s Gate was announced back in 2019 that the oddball little RPG studio from Ghent would end up so thoroughly dominating the videogame scene on PC and console alike, but here we are: If there was a trophy in sight anywhere in 2023, Larian Studios carried it home.
(Image credit: Larian Studios (Twitter))
“After more than 40 million votes, we’re delighted that Baldur’s Gate 3 has won Game of the Year AND Outstanding Story-Rich Game in this year’s Steam Awards,” Larian tweeted. “Thank you all for supporting Baldur’s Gate 3.”
The Steam Awards are a different sort of beast than many other videogame awards, in that nominations and winners are selected entirely through fan voting during Steam’s Autumn and Winter Sales. That can lead to some unexpected and, frankly, confusing results: Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance, hasn’t been updated for years but nonetheless earned the Labor of Love award for ongoing new content releases, while Starfield, which has been widely criticized for its failure to meaningfully innovate on the Bethesda RPG formula, won the Most Innovative Gameplay award.
In the case of Baldur’s Gate 3, though, there’s really no surprise at all, nor was there any real risk that another game would take its crown. BG3 absolutely dominated 2023, winning a total of five Golden Joystick awards and six more at The Game Awards, alongside a mountain of trophies from independent gaming outlets. We said “it wasn’t even close” in our nearly-unanimous selection of Baldur’s Gate 3 as our 2023 Game of the Year, while our sister site GamesRadar called it “a new gold standard by which the entire industry will be forced to measure itself for years to come.”
“Thank you each and everyone of you who voted for us!” Larian boss Swen Vincke tweeted in response to the Steam Awards win. “What a great way to start the new year. We’re very grateful for all the reviews you’ve been posting—there is nothing more motivating for a developer than seeing their players appreciate their work. Thank you!”
The streak isn’t over yet: Baldur’s Gate 3 leads BAFTA’s Best Games of 2023 longlist with 15 nominations. The full BAFTA nominations will be announced on March 7, followed by an awards ceremony on April 11.
