Astro Bot picked up four wins at the 2024 Game Awards, including Game of the Year.

The PlayStation 5 exclusive lets players run, hover and fire rockets to collect stranded robots in a cartoon galaxy. As the game celebrates three decades of Sony’s console history, studio director Nicolas Doucet gave a misty-eyed tribute to Nintendo in an acceptance speech (though he avoided mentioning the competitor by name):

“I was a kid in 1989, I got a gray box and there was a game in it – it was called Super Mario Brothers and it was really, really great,” Doucet said. “I would like to express my appreciation to the company that has consistently shown us innovation and quality and inspired us to create the game we have created.”

Nintendo, meanwhile, went home empty-handed after a night marked by sweeps, surprise reveals, fourth-wall breaks and appearances from celebrities like Harrison Ford and Snoop Dogg.

Balatro, a poker game from the solo developer LocalThunkwon Best Debut Indie, Best Independent Game and Best Mobile Game. Despite this dominance, the representative who accepted awards on behalf of LocalThunk tried to promote the indie scene more widely and called out pixel westerns Arco with name.

Otherwise, big-budget games stole the spotlight. The ceremony began with a surprise announcement trailer for Elden Ring: Nightreigna cooperative Spin off for the 2022 hit. The studio head behind the 2021 Game of the Year winner It takes two also revealed the two-player adventure Shared fictionwill be published next March. breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul and popular voice actress Laura Bailey presented the next game they appeared in: a tongue-in-cheek superhero story called Send. And just as the show seemed fresh from reveals, Naughty Dog, developer of The Last of Us, released a theatrical trailer for an entirely new franchise. Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet.

Host Geoff Keighley also confirmed this Mass layoffs in the industry – something Critics criticized him for being ignored at the ceremony in 2023. He even announced a new “Gamechanger Award” that went to Amir Satvatan employee of gaming tycoon Tencent, who also runs a free support website for developers looking for work.

But without that, it wouldn’t be the Game Awards Muppets. The garrulous grumblers Statler and Waldorf capitalized on the frequent criticism of the awards in a series of running jokes. After a flurry of announcements, they said, “It was like those game commercials with prize breaks!” But as the show approached the fourth hour, they also expressed the exhaustion that many in the audience seemed to be feeling: “My last one Fantasy is that this show is over.”

Most decorated games

AstroBot — 4 wins (including Game of the Year), 7 nominations

Metaphor: ReFantazio — 3 wins, 6 nominations

Balatro — 3 wins, 5 nominations

Black Myth: Wukong — 2 wins, 5 nominations

Helldivers 2 — 2 wins, 4 nominations

Senua’s Sage: Hellblade 2 — 2 wins (including leading actress Melina Jürgen’s win for best performance), 4 nominations

Complete winners

Game of the year

• WINNER: Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best direction of play

• WINNER: Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best narrative

• WINNER: Metaphor: ReFantanzio
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
• Silent Hill 2

Best Art Direction

• WINNER: Metaphor: ReFantazio
• AstroBot
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree
• Neva

Best score and music

• WINNER: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• AstroBot
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Silent Hill 2
• Starblade

Best audio design

• WINNER: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
• AstroBot
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Silent Hill 2

Best performance

• WINNER: Melina Juergens, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
• Hannah Telle, Life is Strange: Double Exposure
• Briana White, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Humberly Gonzalez, Star Wars Outlaws
• Luke Roberts, Silent Hill 2

Innovation in accessibility

• WINNER: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Diablo 4
• Dragon Age: The Veil Guardian
• Star Wars Outlaws

Play for Impact

• WINNER: Neva
• Closer to distance
• Indika
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
• Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Best running game

• WINNER: Helldivers 2
• Destiny 2
• Diablo 4
• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite

Best community support

• WINNER: Baldur’s Gate 3
• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite
• Helldivers 2
• No man’s sky

Best independent game

• WINNER: Balatro
• Animal welfare
• Lorelei and the laser eyes
• Neva
• UFO 50

Best debut indie game

• WINNER: Balatro
• Animal welfare
• Landlords
• Pacific Drive
• The brave squire

Best mobile game

• WINNER: Balatro
• AFK trip
• Pokémon Trading Card Game Bag
• Storm waves
• Zenless Zone Zero

Best VR/AR game

• WINNER: Batman: Arkham Shadow
• Arizona Sunshine Remake
• Asgard’s Wrath 2
• Metal: Hellsinger VR
• Metro Awakening

Best action game

• WINNER: Black Myth: Wukong
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Helldivers 2
• Starblade
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Best action/adventure game

• WINNER: Astro Bot
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Silent Hill 2
• Star Wars Outlaws
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Best role-playing game

• WINNER: Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Dragon’s Dogma 2
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Best fighting game

• WINNER: Tekken 8
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Dragon Ball: Sparks! ZERO
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade classic
• MultiVersus

Best family game

• WINNER: Astro Bot
• Princess Peach: Showtime!
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
• The brave squire

Best sim/strategy game

• WINNER: Frostpunk 2
• Age of Mythology: Retold
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
• Landlords
• Unicorn Overlord

Best sports/racing game

• WINNER: EA Sports FC 25
• F1 24
• NBA 2K25
• Top Spin 2K25
• WWE 2K24

Best multiplayer game

• WINNER: Helldivers 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• Tekken 8
• Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2

Best adaptation

• WINNER: Fallout
• Arcane
• ankle
• Like a Dragon: Yakuza
• Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

Most awaited game

• WINNER: Grand Theft Auto 6
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Spirit of Yotei
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Monster Hunter Wilds

Content Creator of the Year

• WINNER: CaseOh
• IlloJuan
• Techno Gamerz
• Typical gamer
• Usada Pekora

Best esports game

• WINNER: League of Legends
• DOTA 2
• Counter Strike 2
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
• Valorant

Best e-athlete

• WINNER: Faker – Lee Sang-hyeok
• 33 – Neta Shapira
• Aleksib – Aleksi Virolainen
• Chovy-Jeong Ji-hoon
• ZyWoO – Mathieu Herbaut
• ZmjjKk – Zheng Yongkang

Best Esports Team

• WINNER: T1 (League of Legends)
• Bilibili Gaming (League of Legends)
• Gen.G (League of Legends)
• NAVI (counter-strike)
• Team Liquid (DOTA 2)

Player’s voice

• WINNER: Black Myth: Wukong
• Genshin Impact
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Earth Tree
• Storm waves
• Zenless Zone Zero