The Game Awards 2022 has revealed the yearly awards show will allow fans to attend for the first time in three years. The awards show hosted and produced by Geoff Keighley has become one of the biggest events of the gaming year, not only honoring the best games of the year but also featuring tons of reveals for new games. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony transitioned to a virtual event for 2020 and a small invited audience in 2021. Now, the event will once again welcome fans into the venue.
Keighley officially made the announcement on Friday afternoon confirming that The Game Awards 2022 will allow fans to purchase tickets for the event at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. This year's Game Awards are set to be held on Thursday, December 8 with fans able to pre-order tickets to the show as soon as November 1. The live show will be the first Game Awards with fans in attendance since the 2019 event, which saw Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice awarded the coveted Game of the Year award.
The Game Awards' return to in-person events with fans in attendance follows a widespread trend of gaming conventions and shows slowly returning to normalcy. This year saw several gaming conventions including the Tokyo Game Show return to physical events after moving to virtual formats following the onset of the pandemic. Major gaming tournaments for games like Pokemon and League of Legends also saw a shift back to live audiences with their World Championships.
2022's Game Awards is set to be a stacked show with a plethora of high-profile releases already coming throughout 2022. Elden Ring is expected to be dominant at the 2022 Awards Show after winning "Most Anticipated Game" during the last two years' award ceremonies. Others like Horizon: Forbidden West and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga are expected to contend in a variety of categories after seeing success earlier this year. The 2022 show will also introduce a new category in "Best Adaptation," awarded to video game adaptations like the Sonic movies and Halo series.
With just over two months remaining until the annual awards show, there are still several big-name titles set to launch before The Game Awards 2022 kicks off. Fall will see several high-profile exclusives with the PS5 receiving God of War: Ragnarok and Nintendo launching Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on Switch. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Overwatch 2 are both planned for multi-platform releases in October while Sonic Frontiers and Evil West are set for November. The Game Awards 2022 will look to make a triumphant return to open events this December.
The Game Awards 2022 will be held on December 8.