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Home › Seasons › GOTY 2004 › Half-Life 2

2004 · Game of the Year

Half-Life 2: 26 Game of the Year awards

Yes: Half-Life 2 won Game of the Year 2004. Its 26 awards were the most of any game that season (40.0%). Spike Video Game Awards named Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas its Game of the Year.

Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam.

Description via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Half-Life 2 won Game of the Year 2004 in this tracker, with 26 GOTY awards from media outlets and reader votes worldwide.

  • 26Total awards
  • 24Media outlets
  • 2Readers' choice
  • 9Countries

Also in the 2004 season: Halo 2 (13), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (9), Katamari Damacy (3) · full results

Quick answers

How many Game of the Year awards did Half-Life 2 win?

Half-Life 2 won 26 Game of the Year awards in the 2004 season — 40.0% of every award tracked that season. 24 came from editorial picks and 2 from readers' polls, across 9 countries.

Did Half-Life 2 win Game of the Year?

Yes. Half-Life 2 won the 2004 season: no other game collected as many Game of the Year awards that year.

Game facts

  • first-person shooter
  • science fiction video game
  • post-apocalyptic video game
  • science fiction horror
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Xbox (console)
  • X-BOX 360
  • PlayStation 3
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Android (operating system)

Where the awards came from

CountryAwards
United States10
United Kingdom5
Sweden3
Australia3
Italy1
Belgium1
Latvia1
Finland1
Russia1

Every outlet that named it Game of the Year

OutletCountry Year
AIASUnited States2004
APUnited States2004
BAFTA Games AwardsUnited Kingdom2004
British Academy of Film and Television ArtsUnited Kingdom2004
Dataspelsgalan 2005Sweden2004
Edge MagazineUnited Kingdom2004
EurogamerUnited Kingdom2004
Everyeye.itItaly2004
Fragland Community Choice Award ReadersBelgium2004
FZSweden2004
Game Developers Choice AwardsUnited States2004
Game Industry NewsUnited States2004
Game ReactorSweden2004
Gamearena.comAustralia2004
Gamebiz.comAustralia2004
GAMEZ.LVLatvia2004
Guardian readers' choice GOTY ReadersUnited Kingdom2004
IGNUnited States2004
JIVE MagazineUnited States2004
MegaGamesUnited States2004
NAViGaTR AWARDSUnited States2004
Pelit MagazineFinland2004
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteUnited States2004
PlayGround.ruRussia2004
ShacknewsUnited States2004
Sydney Morning HeraldAustralia2004

← Full 2004 results

Updated 2 October 2026 · Source: the Meta Awards database, where every award row cites where it was published.