Most Anticipated Game is by far my least favourite category at The Game Awards. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it an award, and neither does anyone else. If you look up the official tally for ‘most TGA wins’, Most Anticipated is left out, since it’s based on hopes for the game rather than the game itself. It just about makes sense at a show like Gamescom or Summer Game Fest, when it’s people reacting to the specific experience they’ve had on the floor. Even then, it’s more of a pat on the back than a real trophy.
I never shared the disdain some have for Player’s Voice. I dislike the 30-strong roster each year that is bulked up by games that predate 2024, and think the offer of free in-game rewards the gacha games use to entice voters is essentially ballot stuffing, true. But given how populist TGA is, with its mega reveal trailers and 100 million strong audience, there should be a time capsule for what regular players considered worthy.
It has seen some important winners over the years too – Black Myth: Wukong reflected the mood of the masses this year, Ghost of Tsushima broke through the Hades/The Last of Us Part 2 duopoly in 2020, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the inaugural winner in 2019 and, having been only nominated in a single other category (Best Sim/Strategy, which it won), the crown was well deserved. But how much did previous Most Anticipated Winners deserve it? Let’s take a look.
Every Most Anticipated Game At The Game Awards
Most Anticipated has been at The Game Awards since the very start, but it has changed over the years. It used to be entirely fan-voted, as did Esports Player and Esports Team. It was not present in 2018 or 2019, and then returned in 2020 just as it had always been. In 2021 however, two years after Player’s Voice was added, it was folded into the regular voting system of a 90/10 split between jury and audience. It has remained that way ever since, including the most recent ceremony. So down the years, here’s what won, and how they fared afterwards.
This all points to a mixed bag. If we take GTA 6 out of the equation, since we can’t know its fate yet, that’s eight of these awards handed out to a total of four different GOTY winners. Five total, since Elden Ring won it twice. But only three if you count it as ‘won GOTY the following year’. I have to suspect the reason it was pulled in 2018 and 2019 was because The Last of Us Part 2 would only have simply gotten it again.
Ironically, I think No Man’s Sky is the most worthy winner of this award, if there can be such a thing. The Last of Us, Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Grand Theft Auto 6 are just big games we want to play. The Witcher 3 was CD Projekt Red stepping into the big leagues, Elden Ring had a mythos floating around it ever since its reveal, and Breath of the Wild looked like (and turned out to be) something Zelda, maybe even video games as a whole, had never really done before.
But none of them had the sense of ‘I need to experience this’ the way No Man’s Sky did. We all know how it worked out, but this award is not for the end result. That’s what the real TGAs are for. This is for the feeling the game creates before we play it. No Man’s Sky is still the record holder there as far as I’m concerned.
What Does GTA 6 Winning Most Anticipated Mean?
The clever money is on GTA 6 making it six total TGA GOTY winners in nine attempts. Then again, the clever money was on Tears of the Kingdom too. Rebirth was a bit more of a punt, but generally the Most Anticipated winners have been heavy favourites going into the year. GTA 6 is no exception. However, a game this huge in the modern development environment is always at risk of delays. We saw The Last of Us and Elden Ring win before their time, and GTA 6 might be the third to do so.
It could also end up as the Tears of the Kingdom of the bunch – an excellent game gazumped by a surprise package. We still have no real idea what the Switch 2 (or whatever it’s called) will launch with, and that element of surprise, especially when factored against the hype fatigue GTA 6 could be hit with, could help the Switch’s biggest player – almost certainly Mario, a series that is due a GOTY win.
We won’t know until next year how it all shakes out, but Most Anticipated is not the sure-thing it can seem at first glance. It’s also still not a proper award.
