On December 10th, the global gameverse is set to deliver its biggest celebration yet. The Game Awards, the video game industry’s annual year-end celebration, will return live on Thursday, December 10, 2020 as a free digital livestream available across more than 45 global video platforms. Last year, The Game Awards reached 50 million global viewers, including a peak live concurrent audience of more than 7.7 million fans.

With the world unable to safely gather in one physical location, The Game Awards will adapt a multi-city approach to the 2020 broadcast. The show will air live in 4K UHD from studio locations with no in-person audience in Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. The three host cities for The Game Awards will be digitally connected for an innovative celebration with live award presentations, musical performances, and spectacular world premiere game announcements.

The Game Awards announced its 2020 nominees with The Last Of Us Part II, Hades and Ghost of Tsushima leading nominations.

Highlighting the games from the past year that truly transformed entertainment, created camaraderie and community and pushed the envelope on innovation, this year’s diverse list of nominees includes 95 different games, individuals and teams spanning across a multitude of gaming genres and platforms.

Taking a virtual format this year, The Game Awards will air live in 4K UHD from Hollywood, California, with special segments from other locations around the world, including London’s historic Abbey Road Studios. The host cities for The Game Awards will be digitally connected for an innovative celebration with live award presentations, musical performances, and spectacular world premiere game announcements.

This year’s Game of the Year nominees are Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo), DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE), Hades (Supergiant Games), and The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE).

In the gender-neutral Best Performance category, a diverse group of actors will compete for the industry’s highest honor. The nominees include Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey (The Last of Us Part II), Daisuke Tsuji (Ghost of Tsushima), Logan Cunningham (Hades), and Nadji Jeter (MARVEL’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales).

This year Sony Interactive Entertainment is the most nominated publisher with 22 nominations across its portfolio of games. This is the second highest count for publisher nominations in The Game Awards history, following Nintendo’s record-setting 23 nominations for The Game Awards 2017.

The nominees for The Game Awards are selected by a global jury of more than 95 media publications and influencer outlets.

Following the nomination announcement, fans will be able to help choose the winners in all categories via authenticated online voting on www.thegameawards.com. In China, fans can vote for their favorites on Bilibili. Additionally, fans will exclusively determine the “Most Anticipated Game” category via The Game Awards’ Twitter DMs and share the vote to their timelines.

The Game Awards 2020 Nominees

Game of the Year

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
• DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
• Hades (Supergiant Games)
• The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)

Best Game Direction

• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
• Hades (Supergiant Games)
• Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
• The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)

Best Narrative

• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (George Kamitani)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroki Iwaki, Sachie Hirano)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Ian Ryan, Liz Albl, Patrick Downs, Jordan Lemos)
• Hades (Greg Kasavin)
• The Last of Us Part II (Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross)

Best Art Direction

• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
• Hades (Supergiant Games)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
• The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)

Best Score and Music

• DOOM Eternal (Mick Gordon)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Nobuo Uematsu, Masahi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki)
• Hades (Darren Korb)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Gareth Coker)
• The Last of Us Part II (Gustavo Santaolala, Mac Quale)

Best Audio Design

• DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
• Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
• Resident Evil 3 (Capcom)
• The Last of Us Part 2 (Naughty Dog/SIE)

Best Performance

• Ashley Johnson as Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
• Laura Bailey as Abby, The Last of Us Part II
• Daisuke Tsuji as Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima
• Logan Cunningham as Hades, Hades
• Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Games for Impact

• If Found… (DREAMFEEL/Annapurna Interactive)
• Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition (Cardboard Computer/Annapurna Interactive)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
• Tell Me Why (Dontnod Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
• Through the Darkest of Times (Paintbucket Games)

Best Ongoing

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Call of Duty Warzone (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Indie

• Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
• Hades (Supergiant Games)
• Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)

Best Mobile, Presented by LG WING, Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon

• Among Us (InnerSloth)
• Call of Duty Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
• Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
• Legends of Runeterra (Riot Games)
• Pokémon Café Mix (Genius Sonority)

Best Community Support

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Fall Guys (Mediatonic/Devolver)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
• Valorant (Riot Games)

Innovation in Accessibility

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• Grounded (Obsidian/Xbox Game Studios)
• HyperDot (Tribe Games)
• The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
• Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft)

Best VR/AR

• Dreams (Media Molecule/SIE)
• Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
• MARVEL’s Iron Man VR (Camoflaj/SIE)
• STAR WARS: Squadrons (Motive Studios/EA)
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Skydance Interactive)

Best Action

• DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
• Hades (Supergiant Games)
• Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
• Nioh 2 (Team Ninja)
• Streets of Rage 4 (DotEmu)

Best Action/Adventure

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
• MARVEL’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games/SIE)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Respawn/EA)
• The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)

Best Role Playing

• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
• Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
• Persona 5 Royal (Atlus, P Studios)
• Wasteland 3 (inXile Entertainment/Koch)
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)

Best Fighting

• Granblue Fantasy: Versus (Arc System Works/Cygames)
• Mortal Kombat 11/Ultimate (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
• Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (Dimps/Capcom)
• One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai-Namco)
• UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe: Late[cl-r] (French Bread/Arc System Works)

Best Family

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Toys for Bob/Activision)
• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
• Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Velan Studios/Nintendo)
• Minecraft Dungeons (Mojang/Double Eleven/Xbox Game Studios)
• Paper Mario: The Origami King (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)

Best Sim/Strategy

• Crusader Kings III (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox)
• Desperados III (Mimimi Games/THQN)
• Gears Tactics (Splash Damage/The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo/Xbox Game Studios)
• XCOM: Chimera Squad (Firaxis/2K)

Best Sports/Racing

• Dirt 5 (Codemasters Cheshire/Codemasters)
• F1 2020 (Codemasters Birmingham /Codemasters)
• FIFA 21 (EA Vancouver/EA Sports)
• NBA 2K21 (Visual Concepts/2K)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (Vicarious Visions/Activision)

Best Multiplayer

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
• Among Us (InnerSloth)
• Call of Duty: Warzone (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
• Valorant (Riot Games)

Best Debut Game

• Carrion (Phobia Game Studio/Devolver)
• Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry/Playstack)
• Raji: An Ancient Epic (Nodding Heads Games)
• Röki (Polygon Treehouse/CI Games)
• Phasmophobia (Kinetic Games)

Content Creator of the Year, Presented by Adobe

• Alanah Pearce
• NickMercs
• TimtheTatman
• Jay Ann Lopez
• Valkyrae

Best Esports Game

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• Valorant (Riot Games)

Best Esports Athlete

• Ian “Crimsix” Porter / Call of Duty
• Heo “Showmaker” Su / League of Legends
• Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu / League of Legends
• Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro / Call of Duty
• Matthieu “ZywOo” Herbaut / CS:GO

Best Esports Team

• DAMWON Gaming / League of Legends
• Dallas Empire / Call of Duty
• San Francisco Shock / Overwatch League
• G2 Esports / League of Legends
• Team Secret / DOTA2

Best Esports Event

• BLAST Premier: Spring E2020 European Finals (CS:GO)
• Call of Duty League Championship 2020
• IEM Katowice 2020 (CS:GO)
• League of Legends World Championship 2020
• Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020

Best Esports Host

• Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere
• Alex “Machine” Richardson
• Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez
• James “Dash” Patterson
• Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden

Without a live-in person audience, fans around the world and thousands of live co-streamers will participate and virtually interact with the show across social media, through live in-game experiences, and via interactive extensions on leading streaming platforms. Additional details will be revealed in the coming months. 

The Game Awards also announced that it will present a new award starting in 2020, Innovation in Accessibly, that recognizes software and/or hardware developers that are pushing the medium forward by adding features, technology and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience. The Innovation in Accessibility honor joins the Global Gaming Citizen program, the Games for Impact award, and other, to be announced initiatives, as ways to highlight those helping grow and diversify the types of people that create and consume video game entertainment.

Once again, The Game Awards will serve as a launching pad for a weekend of instantly playable game content, in-game drops, demos and live streams that celebrate the exciting future for video games across PC, console, mobile and mixed reality experiences. The Game Awards Sale will be available across all major PC and console gaming platforms, giving fans access to special discounts on nominated games and other special offers. The Game Festival, first launched in 2019 as an all-digital consumer event, will return and offer fans limited-time playable demos on upcoming games from both major studios and independent developers. More details on The Game Awards Sale and The Game Festival will be released in November.

The Game Awards is executive produced by Geoff Keighley and Kimmie Kim. LeRoy Bennett returns as creative director for his sixth year, and Richard Preuss returns as director for his fourth year.