Highlights
- The Game Awards celebrates the achievements of video game developers, with a select few developers winning multiple honors.
- Nintendo is the most successful developer at The Game Awards, winning 16 times out of 46 nominations, with its biggest year in 2017 when it won Game of the Year for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
In various mediums, the bestowing of an award is used as a symbol of appreciation for the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears exerted when creating a certain thing, from abstract theory to tangible pieces of art. Video games are no different and, in 2014, journalist and presenter Geoff Keighley founded the prestigious Game Awards, which celebrates the achievements in the sphere of video games annually.
Though many developers have been recognized and represented throughout The Game Awards' nine-year history, and indeed by the very nature of competition, only one victor can emerge in each category every year. Battling to be crowned winner in approximately 30 categories per annum, a select few developers have managed to nab not just one win but several, with these multiple honors cementing their places in the annals of video game history.
10 ZA/UM & Riot Games (4 Wins)
Founded in 2016, indie developer ZA/UM's first game Disco Elysium made an enormous splash in the video game industry upon its release, charming gamers and critics alike with its off-beat narrative and unique visual style. American developer Riot Games, on the other hand, made its reputation with the live-service gamesLeague of Legends and later Valorant.
ZA/UM's debut effort swept the 2019 Game Awards, with Disco Elysium winning in every category it was nominated for, including Best Narrative, Best Independent Game, Best Role Playing Game, and Fresh Indie Game. In doing so, ZA/UM beat out contenders such as Square Enix and Kojima Productions. After a string of nominations in prior years, Riot Games nabbed the top spot in Best Esports Game four years in a row with League of Legends from 2019 to 2021 and Valorant in 2022.
9 Capcom & Rockstar (5 Wins)
Showing that nominations do not necessarily translate into wins, industry titans Capcom and Rockstar have each earned 5 wins overall from 30 and 13 nominations respectively. With franchises like Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto up their sleeves, it is no surprise that both developers have seen healthy representation at The Game Awards.
Capcom secured their wins through games such as Monster Hunter: World, which won Best Role Playing Game in 2018, and Devil May Cry 5, which won Best Action Game in 2019. Rockstar Games picked up the majority of its wins through epic westernRed Dead Redemption2, which won awards including Best Narrative and Best Performance in the same year.
8 Playground Games (5 Wins)
Hailing from the UK, developer Playground Games is widely known for its work on the Forza Horizon series. Despite its body of work being exclusively made up of racing games, the developer has recently been chosen to reboot the landmark Xbox franchise Fable.
As is expected from Playground Games' backlog, its winning presence at The Game Awards can be solely put down to the Forza Horizon franchise. 2021 saw Playground Games' most successful year at the ceremony, with Forza Horizon 5 picking up wins in Best Sports/Racing Game plus Best Audio Design and Innovation in Accessibility.
7 CD Projekt Red & Kojima Productions (5 Wins)
Credentials such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 secure the place of Polish developer CD Projekt Red among the most recognized companies in the video game sphere. Despite its relative youth, the same can be said for Kojima Productions. After auteur Hideo Kojima set up the company after parting ways with Konami, Kojima Productions kept Kojima's unique brand of video game creation with Death Stranding.
Regarding wins at the Game Awards, CD Projekt Red had its best year in 2015, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt winning Game of the Year and Best Role Playing Game along with the developer itself snagging Developer of the Year. In 2019, Kojima Productions took home awards for Best Game Direction and Best Score/Music for Death Stranding, as well as the Best Performance award for actor Mads Mikkelsen.
6 Ubisoft (6 Wins)
Being at the head of massive open-world franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, French developer/publisher Ubisoft and its various subsidiaries have seen success after success commercially and often critically with its video game releases. It will come as no surprise that this success in the industry is mirrored in Ubisoft's presence at The Game Awards, although the gargantuan company has only managed 6 wins out of 35 nominations.
Half of these wins came at the inaugural Game Awards ceremony in 2014, with Valiant Hearts: The Great War netting Ubisoft wins for Best Narrative and Games for Change, whilst Far Cry 4 bagged a win in the Best Shooter category. The other two wins came in 2022 with Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope winning Best Sim/Strategy Game.
5 Square Enix (7 Wins)
The conglomerate that is Square Enix juggles many entertainment mediums as part of its business practices, with video games being a favored market. From Kingdom Hearts to Final Fantasy, Square Enix oversees some of the most famous JRPG franchises in existence.
At The Game Awards, Square Enix's most successful years came consecutively in 2021 and 2022 when MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 won Best Ongoing Game and Best Community Support in both years. Other Final Fantasy franchise games make up the vast majority of the company's victories at The Game Awards.
4 FromSoftware & Blizzard Entertainment (8 Wins)
Avid gamers will be aware that FromSoftware has made a name for itself by creating games that are in equal parts brutally punishing and enthrallingly cryptic, whether against the backdrop of Yharnam from Bloodborne or Ashina from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. American developer Blizzard Entertainment is squarely in the wheelhouse of online multiplayer games, boasting franchises like World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
Regarding accolades, FromSoftware has taken home the coveted Game of the Year award twice with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring in 2019 and 2022 respectively. Alongside being crowned Game of the Year, Elden Ring won Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Role Playing Game. In Blizzard Entertainment's camp, Overwatch achieved Best Esports Game three times consecutively and grabbed Game of the Year in 2016.
3 Santa Monica Studio (9 Wins)
Known for creating the acclaimed God of War series (and developing six entries in the franchise), Santa Monica Studio has nurtured Kratos as he slashed his way through two pantheons of gods over 17 years. When looking at wins at the Game Awards, it is the 2018 reboot of the franchise and its sequel that have garnered attention.
These wins include Best Game Direction and the prestigious Game of the Year award for God of War (2018). God of War: Ragnarök bagged Best Narrative, Best Action/Adventure Game, and Best Performance for Christopher Judge's stellar performance as the god-butcher Kratos himself.
2 Naughty Dog (10 Wins)
After developing the beloved Crash Bandicoot PlayStation 1 trilogy, developer Naughty Dog decided to surprise fans by mastering yet another genre that was not the collectible platformer, that being the cinematic action-adventure genre with Uncharted and The Last of Us.
The Game Awards have been kind to Naughty Dog, with the developer amassing 10 wins from 28 nominations over the years. The final entry in the Uncharted series Uncharted 4: A Thief's End nabbed a win in 2016 with Best Narrative, but it was The Last of Us Part 2 that was Naughty Dog's crowning glory, winning 6 awards in 2020 including Game of the Year.
1 Nintendo (16 Wins)
It is no exaggeration to describe Japanese developer Nintendo as a titan of the video game industry. One only needs to list a fraction of its own franchises to understand the influence and impact of the company within the video game sphere: Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and Metroid to name a few.
Out of a whopping 46 nominations at The Game Awards, Nintendo has taken the top spot 16 times. Indeed, bar 2018, there has not been a year in Game Awards history that Nintendo has not won in at least one category. Its biggest single year was in 2017, with one win for Super Mario Odyssey and three wins for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including the illustrious Game of the Year award.