These are The Game Awards 2024 winners, if it was chosen by Metacritic

The Game Awards take place in a week’s time, with a total of 30 awards to be given out on the night.

Winners for each award are decided by a mix of a voting jury (which is weighted 90%) and public fan voting (10%).

As a result, the winners of each award may not directly correlate to the games which received the most critical praise at their time of release.

Just for fun, then, VGC has compiled a list of which game would win each of the major awards, were it based solely on Metacritic score.

The Game Awards 2024 Winners (if they were decided by Metacritic)

• Game of the Year – Astro Bot
• Best Independent Game – UFO 50
• Best Debut Indie Game – Balatro
• Best Action Game – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Best Action / Adventure Game – Astro Bot
• Best RPG – Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Best Fighting Game – Tekken 8
• Best Family Game – Astro Bot
• Best Sim / Strategy Game – Unicorn Overlord
• Best Sports / Racing Game – WWE 2K24
• Best Multiplayer Game – Tekken 8
• Best Mobile Game – Balatro
• Best VR / AR Game – Asgard’s Wrath 2
• Best Narrative – Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Best Art Direction – Astro Bot
• Best Adaptation – Arcane

The Game Awards will be streamed live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 12, starting at 4.30pm PT / 7.30pm ET (December 13 at 12:30am GMT).

Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are both up for seven prizes, including Game of the Year.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is The Game Awards’ most nominated publisher in 2024 with 16 nominations, followed by Square Enix and Xbox with 12 nominations each, and Sega with 11.

Organisers say to expect “awards, world premiere new game announcements, and musical performances by The Game Awards Orchestra, conducted by Lorne Balfe”.