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The years nobody could agree on a Game of the Year
In 2012 the winner, The Walking Dead: The Game, took only 18.7% of that season's awards — 28 different games won at least one. Compare 2022, where Elden Ring swept 72.2% and the argument was effectively over.
| Year | Winner | Its share | Games that won something | Awards tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The Walking Dead: The Game | 18.7% | 28 | 401 |
| 2021 | It Takes Two | 19.8% | 48 | 449 |
| 2019 | Death Stranding | 25.1% | 36 | 471 |
| 2007 | BioShock | 29.1% | 17 | 165 |
| 2014 | Dragon Age: Inquisition | 31.6% | 50 | 440 |
| 2008 | Fallout 3 | 32.2% | 22 | 214 |
| 2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | 34.7% | 13 | 121 |
| 2024 | Astro Bot | 36.1% | 34 | 507 |
| 2010 | Red Dead Redemption | 36.7% | 24 | 305 |
| 2016 | Uncharted 4: A Thief's End | 39.6% | 32 | 482 |
| 2004 | Half-Life 2 | 41.3% | 13 | 63 |
| 2003 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | 42.9% | 12 | 42 |
| 2013 | The Last of Us | 47.2% | 28 | 545 |
| 2020 | The Last of Us Part II | 50.1% | 25 | 649 |
| 2018 | God of War | 51.2% | 23 | 516 |
| 2009 | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | 51.5% | 15 | 227 |
| 2023 | Baldur's Gate 3 | 53.3% | 28 | 544 |
| 2005 | Resident Evil 4 | 55.1% | 19 | 69 |
| 2011 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 55.8% | 20 | 412 |
| 2017 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | 57.4% | 23 | 462 |
| 2015 | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 58.3% | 28 | 482 |
| 2025 | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | 71.1% | 42 | 760 |
| 2022 | Elden Ring | 72.2% | 29 | 604 |
A low share is not a weak game. It usually means a crowded year: three or four titles strong enough that different juries, in different countries, reasonably landed on different answers.
Is the argument getting louder or quieter?
Quieter, on this measure. Split the 23 complete seasons at their midpoint and the earlier half produced a median winning share of 41.3%, the later half 51.2% — the recent seasons agree 9.9 points more strongly on their winner than the older ones did.
Two things could produce that, and the data here cannot separate them. Either the press really has converged, or a panel that grew from 40 outlets to several hundred simply averages out the eccentric picks that a small field let stand. The second reading is the more cautious one, and it is the reason a winning share should be read as a property of the season and of the field that judged it.
The count of games taking at least one award does move, and it moves with the panel rather than with taste: more outlets voting means more room for an outlier to land somewhere. That is why this page ranks seasons by the winner's share and not by how many different games won something — the second number mostly measures how many outlets were being tracked.
What a divided season looks like from inside
In 2012 the winner took 18.7% while Journey finished on 58 awards — a gap of 17 in a season of 401. A result like that is not one jury hesitating; it is several juries answering different questions, and the disagreement usually has a geography. 2012 country by country shows where each side of it lived.
Only complete seasons appear here. A season with a handful of sourceable awards would top this ranking on arithmetic alone — four awards for four different games is a 25% "winner" and no consensus to measure. Those years are marked partial and kept out.
Updated 2 October 2026 · Source: the Meta Awards database, where every award row cites where it was published.