It is hard to find a series that has more "weight" in the trophy cabinet than this one. If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the last few years, you’ve probably seen the firestorm. One side claims it’s the greatest storytelling achievement in history. The other side is busy review-bombing Metacritic because a character they liked died or someone didn't look the way they expected. But when you look at the sheer data behind The Last of Us awards, the noise starts to fade into the background of a massive, record-breaking reality.
Naughty Dog didn't just make a game; they built an industrial-grade award magnet. Between the original 2013 masterpiece, the divisive but juggernaut sequel, and the HBO adaptation, we are talking about hundreds upon hundreds of trophies. It is honestly a bit ridiculous.
The Part II Juggernaut and the Elden Ring Rivalry
For a long time, The Last of Us Part II was the undisputed king of the hill. In 2020, it didn't just win Game of the Year; it steamrolled the entire industry. It grabbed seven wins at The Game Awards alone, which was a record at the time. We're talking Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, and an incredible performance win for Laura Bailey as Abby.
By the time the dust settled in early 2021, Part II had racked up over 322 Game of the Year awards from various outlets and reader polls. It was the most awarded game in history. Period.
Then came the Tarnished.
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In 2022, Elden Ring showed up and started snatching trophies like they were runes. By January 2023, the tracking sites like ResetEra and GameAwards.net confirmed that Elden Ring had officially surpassed Part II, ending up with around 331 GOTY nods. Does that make the The Last of Us awards count less impressive? Not really. It took a literal open-world cultural phenomenon from FromSoftware to finally nudge Ellie out of the top spot.
The TV Show Transition: From Consoles to Emmys
When HBO announced they were adapting the game, the skeptics were out in force. Video game movies and shows usually suck. That’s just the rule of the universe. But Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann clearly didn't get the memo.
The 75th Emmy Awards were a bloodbath for the competition. While Succession and The Bear were the big winners in the main categories, The Last of Us dominated the technical and guest categories.
- Nick Offerman won Outstanding Guest Actor for his role as Bill.
- Storm Reid took home Outstanding Guest Actress for the "Left Behind" episode.
- The show grabbed eight Emmys in total during that cycle.
- The sound team and visual effects artists also walked away with hardware.
Actually, it's worth noting that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were both nominated for Lead Actor and Actress, which is almost unheard of for a "genre" show about zombies—sorry, "infected." They didn't win the top acting prizes that year, but the nominations themselves validated the series as a "prestige drama" rather than just a horror flick.
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Why the Backlash Doesn't Change the Scoreboard
You can't talk about these awards without talking about the "User Score" vs. "Critic Score" divide. It is the elephant in the room. The Last of Us Part II holds a staggering 93 on Metacritic from critics, but for months, its user score was sitting in the 3.0 to 5.0 range.
People were mad. They were really, really mad.
The controversy surrounding Joel’s fate and the introduction of Abby created a rift that still hasn't fully healed in 2026. However, the award bodies—BAFTA, D.I.C.E., and the Game Developers Choice Awards—didn't flinch. At the 2021 BAFTA Games Awards, the sequel broke the record for the most nominations ever, with 13 nods. It eventually won the EE Game of the Year (the fan-voted one!) which kind of proves the "haters" were a vocal minority compared to the millions of people who actually played and loved the game.
Recent Wins: The 2025 Adaptation Wave
Even as recently as late 2025, the momentum hasn't stopped. At The Game Awards 2025, The Last of Us Season 2 took home the "Best Adaptation" award. It was a heated category, competing against things like the Minecraft Movie (which had its own... interesting reception) and Until Dawn.
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The reason this keeps happening is the "Naughty Dog Polish." Whether it's the game's animation—which won the D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation—or the show’s prosthetic makeup, the level of craft is just higher than almost anything else in the medium.
What to Look for Next
If you are tracking the legacy of the franchise, there are a few specific things you should keep an eye on to see if the "award-winning" streak continues:
- The Season 2 Emmy Cycle: Now that Season 2 has aired and dealt with the "big twist," keep an eye on the 2026 Emmy nominations. Bella Ramsey’s performance in the latter half of the season is widely considered their best work yet.
- Technical Milestones: Look at the "Accessibility" awards. Naughty Dog basically invented the modern standard for accessibility in gaming, winning the inaugural "Innovation in Accessibility" award at The Game Awards 2020.
- The Narrative Legacy: Check the Writers Guild of America (WGA) archives. Both the original game and its sequel won the WGA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing, a feat few franchises have repeated.
The reality is that The Last of Us awards aren't just about vanity. They represent the moment video games finally forced the rest of the entertainment world to take them seriously as a narrative medium. Whether you love the story or hate it, you can't argue with a shelf that's literally bowing under the weight of the gold.
If you want to verify these stats yourself, the best places to look are the official archives of The Game Awards, the Television Academy's Emmy database, and the BAFTA Games site. The numbers are public, and they are massive.
To truly understand the impact of these accolades, compare the "Narrative" and "Performance" wins of The Last of Us against other big-budget titles from the same years. You’ll notice a pattern: while other games win for "Best Multiplayer" or "Best Action," Naughty Dog consistently sweeps the categories associated with "Art" and "Emotion." That is the legacy of the franchise in a nutshell.