You’ve spent eighty hours platinum-ing a masterpiece, convinced it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then December rolls around, the big stage lights up, and some game you barely remember hearing about takes the trophy. It feels personal. It feels rigged. Honestly, it’s mostly just a giant, complicated machine.
Game of the year voting is a weird beast. It’s not just one thing. Depending on which show you’re watching—The Game Awards, DICE, or the BAFTAs—the people holding the pens are completely different. Some are journalists. Others are the people who actually wrote the code for the games you’re playing. Understanding how they pick a winner is the only way to stop shouting at your TV every winter.
The 90/10 Split: How The Game Awards Really Work
Geoff Keighley’s show is the big one. It’s the "Oscars" of gaming, but the math behind it makes a lot of people salty. Basically, your vote counts for 10% of the final tally.
That’s it. 10%.
The other 90% comes from a global jury of over 100 media and influencer outlets. These are sites like IGN, GameSpot, and international publications from Brazil to China. Each outlet gets a ballot and submits their top five choices. If a game shows up on enough ballots, it becomes a nominee.
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Critics often get accused of being out of touch. In 2024, when Astro Bot took home the big prize, the internet was divided. Some called it a "pure gaming" victory; others were fuming that Black Myth: Wukong didn't win, despite it dominating the "Players' Voice" category. This is exactly why the 90/10 split exists. The organizers are terrified of a 100% fan vote because it would turn into a raw popularity contest. Large fanbases could just "brute force" a win for a game even if it’s broken or uninspired.
Why DICE and BAFTA Feel Different
If you want to know what the "pros" think, look at the D.I.C.E. Awards. These are run by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS). Here, it’s not journalists voting; it’s developers, producers, and artists. They look for things a critic might miss—technical hurdles, innovative engine work, or how a mechanic changed the industry's "language."
The BAFTAs are even more intense. They use a "chapter" system.
- Specialist chapters (like audio or art) vote on their specific fields.
- Juries are required to have played all the games in their category.
- The final winner is hidden even from the BAFTA staff until Deloitte (the auditors) hands over the envelope.
Compare that to The Game Awards, where the sheer volume of games makes it nearly impossible for every juror to have finished every nominee. It leads to a "mainstream" bias. If 100 people have to vote, and 80 of them finished the big AAA blockbuster but only 10 finished the obscure indie masterpiece, the blockbuster wins. Every single time.
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The "Recency Bias" and the November Cutoff
Timing is everything in game of the year voting. Most shows have a cutoff in late November. If a game comes out in December, it usually gets pushed to the next year. This is why Cyberpunk 2077 felt like it was in the conversation for three years straight—it missed its first window, then won "Best Ongoing" later.
But here’s the kicker: voters have to submit their ballots before the cutoff date. This means they are often playing pre-release review copies. If a game launches with a massive Day 1 patch that fixes everything, the jury might have already voted based on the buggy version. Or, if a game is a "slow burn" that takes 50 hours to get good, a busy journalist might only see the first 10 before they have to turn in their ballot.
Does Your Vote Actually Matter?
Sorta. In a tight race where the jury is split 50/50, that 10% fan vote can actually act as a tie-breaker. It happened in 2025 with the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweep. The critical acclaim was massive, but the fan support pushed it over the edge into record-breaking territory.
If you want your voice to be 100% of the weight, you have to look at things like The Steam Awards or the Players' Voice category. Those are the wild west. Those are where Genshin Impact can win an award years after it launched just because the community rallied together for free in-game currency. It’s chaotic, it’s messy, and it’s arguably a more "honest" look at what people are actually playing.
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How to Vote Smarter Next Season
If you actually want to influence the conversation, don't just click a button on a website.
- Support the indies early: Jurors look at social media and "buzz." If a game like Balatro doesn't get community hype in July, it won't be on a journalist's radar in November.
- Read the category descriptions: Don't just vote for your favorite game in every category. If a game has terrible voice acting but you love the combat, don't vote for it in "Best Performance." It dilutes the credibility of the awards.
- Watch the D.I.C.E. winners: If you want to see which games will actually influence the next five years of game design, watch who the developers pick. They see the "bones" of the game, not just the skin.
Game of the year voting will always be a lightning rod for controversy. As long as there are "console wars" and tribalism, nobody will ever be 100% happy with the results. But knowing that the trophy was handed out by a mix of 100 international critics rather than a secret cabal in a basement makes the pill a little easier to swallow.
Next time the nominations drop, check the "jury" list on the official site. You'll see exactly which outlets are representing your region. If you don't like their picks, let them know. They're the ones with 90% of the power, after all.