Steam / Practical guide
Steam Awards Winners: Every Game of the Year and Every Category, 2016 to 2025
Valve keeps each year's Steam Awards on a separate page, and older winners are listed under their current store names. This is every winner of all ten editions in one place, with the 2026 dates as far as Valve has set them.
ALVIRAN Editorial · Reviewed 2026-10-23
In this guide
Steam accounts that already own Elden Ring
Elden Ring won Game of the Year 2022 and Labor of Love 2024, and every listing shows its full library before checkout.
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Steam Game of the Year winners list, 2018 to 2025
Valve added Game of the Year to the Steam Awards in 2018. Each row links to Valve's winners page for that year. Release dates are the Steam release dates on the store today.
| Year | Game of the Year | Steam release | Developer | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Hollow Knight: Silksong | 4 Sep 2025 | Team Cherry | Also won Best Game You Suck At |
| 2024 | Black Myth: Wukong | 20 Aug 2024 | Game Science | Also Best Game You Suck At and Outstanding Story-Rich Game |
| 2023 | Baldur's Gate 3 | 3 Aug 2023 | Larian Studios | Also Outstanding Story-Rich Game |
| 2022 | Elden Ring | Feb 2022 | FromSoftware | Also Best Game You Suck At |
| 2021 | Resident Evil Village | 7 May 2021 | Capcom | Only award that year |
| 2020 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 5 Dec 2019 on Steam | Rockstar Games | Also Outstanding Story-Rich Game |
| 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | Mar 2019 | FromSoftware | Store page now says GOTY Edition |
| 2018 | PUBG: Battlegrounds | 21 Dec 2017 | PUBG Corporation | First Game of the Year award |
Two FromSoftware games are on the list (Sekiro and Elden Ring), and every winner since 2022 also took at least one other category. Red Dead Redemption 2 won the 2020 award after arriving on Steam on 5 December 2019.
Steam Awards 2025 winners: all 11 categories
The 2025 winners page lists one winner per category. Valve opened nominations on 24 November 2025, ran the finalist vote during the Winter Sale from 18 December 2025 and set the winner announcement for 3 January 2026 at 10 a.m. Pacific, per its Winter Sale post.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Game of the Year | Hollow Knight: Silksong |
| VR Game of the Year | The Midnight Walk |
| Labor of Love | Baldur's Gate 3 |
| Best Game on Steam Deck | Hades II |
| Better With Friends | PEAK |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Silent Hill f |
| Most Innovative Gameplay | ARC Raiders |
| Best Game You Suck At | Hollow Knight: Silksong |
| Best Soundtrack | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | Dispatch |
| Sit Back and Relax | RV There Yet? |
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won only Best Soundtrack. Baldur's Gate 3, Game of the Year 2023, came back two years later to win Labor of Love, the award for a game that keeps getting new content.
Steam Awards 2024 and 2023 winners
| Category | 2024 winner | 2023 winner |
|---|---|---|
| Game of the Year | Black Myth: Wukong | Baldur's Gate 3 |
| VR Game of the Year | Metro Awakening | Labyrinthine |
| Labor of Love | Elden Ring | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
| Best Game on Steam Deck | God of War Ragnarok | Hogwarts Legacy |
| Better With Friends | Helldivers 2 | Lethal Company |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Silent Hill 2 | Atomic Heart |
| Most Innovative Gameplay | Liar's Bar | Starfield |
| Best Game You Suck At | Black Myth: Wukong | Sifu |
| Best Soundtrack | Red Dead Redemption | The Last of Us Part I |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | Black Myth: Wukong | Baldur's Gate 3 |
| Sit Back and Relax | Farming Simulator 25 | Dave the Diver |
Black Myth: Wukong's three wins in 2024 are the most by one game in a single year. The 2024 Best Soundtrack went to the first Red Dead Redemption, which came to Steam that year, not to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Steam accounts that already own Baldur's Gate 3
Search the shop for any award winner by title and compare complete libraries side by side.
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Steam accounts that already own Black Myth: Wukong
The 2024 Game of the Year is a paid game, and the shop lets you search libraries for it by name.
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Steam Awards 2019 to 2022 winners
Valve settled on its current set of categories between 2019 and 2022. Best Soundtrack and Sit Back and Relax, both used once in the joke years, returned in 2020, and Best Game on the Go was added in 2022 before it became Best Game on Steam Deck in 2023. A dash means the category did not exist that year.
| Category | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game of the Year | Elden Ring | Resident Evil Village | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice |
| VR Game of the Year | Hitman 3 (now HITMAN World of Assassination) | Cooking Simulator VR | Half-Life: Alyx | Beat Saber |
| Labor of Love | Cyberpunk 2077 | Terraria | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | Grand Theft Auto V |
| Better With Friends | Raft | It Takes Two | Fall Guys | DayZ |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Forza Horizon 5 | Ori and the Will of the Wisps | GRIS |
| Most Innovative Gameplay | Stray | Deathloop | Death Stranding | My Friend Pedro |
| Best Game You Suck At | Elden Ring | Nioh 2: The Complete Edition | Apex Legends | Mortal Kombat 11 |
| Best Soundtrack | Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy | DOOM Eternal | - |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | God of War | Cyberpunk 2077 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | A Plague Tale: Innocence |
| Sit Back and Relax | LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | Farming Simulator 22 | The Sims 4 | - |
| Best Game on the Go | Death Stranding Director's Cut | - | - | - |
Valve's pages now show some winners under their current store names. The 2020 Labor of Love winner appears as Counter-Strike 2, because Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was replaced by CS2 on the same store page. Grand Theft Auto V appears as Grand Theft Auto V Legacy, and the 2020 Death Stranding entry as Death Stranding Director's Cut.
Steam Awards 2018, 2017 and 2016 winners
The first three editions used joke categories, and 2016 and 2017 had no Game of the Year. 2016 voting ran from 22 December to 2 January, and 2017 voting from 21 December to 4 January, per Valve's pages. On those two pages each award shows the winner and four runners-up.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Game of the Year | PUBG: Battlegrounds |
| VR Game of the Year | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR |
| Labor of Love | Grand Theft Auto V |
| Best Developer | CD Projekt Red (Valve excluded itself) |
| Best Environment | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt |
| Better With Friends | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege |
| Best Alternate History | Assassin's Creed Odyssey |
| Most Fun With a Machine | Rocket League |
| Year | Category | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Choices Matter | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt |
| 2017 | Mom's Spaghetti | PUBG: Battlegrounds |
| 2017 | Labor of Love | Warframe |
| 2017 | Suspension of Disbelief | Rocket League |
| 2017 | The World Is Grim Enough Let's Just All Get Along | Stardew Valley |
| 2017 | No Apologies | The Witcher: Enhanced Edition |
| 2017 | Defies Description | Garry's Mod |
| 2017 | Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of War | Just Cause 3 |
| 2017 | Haunts My Dreams | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| 2017 | Soul Of Vitruvius | Rise of the Tomb Raider |
| 2017 | Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude! 2.0 | The Evil Within 2 |
| 2017 | Best Soundtrack | Cuphead |
| 2017 | Even Better Than I Expected | Cuphead |
| 2016 | Villain Most In Need Of A Hug | Portal 2 |
| 2016 | I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award | Euro Truck Simulator 2 |
| 2016 | Test of Time | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |
| 2016 | Just 5 More Minutes | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| 2016 | Whoooaaaaaaa, dude! | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 2016 | Game Within A Game | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 2016 | I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye | The Walking Dead |
| 2016 | Best Use Of A Farm Animal | Goat Simulator |
| 2016 | Boom Boom | DOOM |
| 2016 | Love/Hate Relationship | Dark Souls III |
| 2016 | Sit Back and Relax | Euro Truck Simulator 2 |
| 2016 | Better With Friends | Left 4 Dead 2 |
Rainbow Six Siege won Better With Friends in 2018; our guide to Rainbow Six Siege Year 11 covers where the game is now. Assassin's Creed Odyssey's 2018 award fits into our Assassin's Creed games in order list.
Which games have won the most Steam Awards
Counting every edition from 2016 to 2025, one award per category win, under the name each game had when it won:
| Game | Awards | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto V | 4 | Whoooaaaaaaa, dude! and Game Within A Game (2016), Labor of Love (2018, 2019) |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | 3 | Just 5 More Minutes (2016), Haunts My Dreams (2017), Labor of Love (2020) |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 3 | Game of the Year and Story-Rich (2020), Labor of Love (2023) |
| Elden Ring | 3 | Game of the Year and Best Game You Suck At (2022), Labor of Love (2024) |
| Baldur's Gate 3 | 3 | Game of the Year and Story-Rich (2023), Labor of Love (2025) |
| Black Myth: Wukong | 3 | Game of the Year, Best Game You Suck At and Story-Rich (2024) |
Two awards each: The Witcher 3 (2017, 2018), Cyberpunk 2077 (2021, 2022), PUBG (2017, 2018), Rocket League (2017, 2018), Death Stranding (2020, 2022), Euro Truck Simulator 2 (both in 2016), Cuphead (both in 2017) and Hollow Knight: Silksong (both in 2025). Labor of Love is the award that keeps rewarding older games: three Game of the Year winners later won it.
Steam Awards 2026: dates and what to expect
Valve has posted nothing about the 2026 Steam Awards in its Steam news feed as of 23 October 2026, and the Steam Awards address still opens the 2025 winners. The one fixed date is the Winter Sale, 17 December 2026 to 4 January 2027. In 2025 the finalist vote ran during the Winter Sale, so if Valve repeats that pattern, voting would start on 17 December 2026 and winners would follow around the end of the sale. That is a pattern, not a Valve date; our Steam Winter Sale 2026 guide has the full calendar.
In 2025 Valve gave a Steam Awards Nominations badge for nominating a game in at least one category, with extra badge levels for nominating in all 11 categories, playing a nominated game and reviewing one. Badge levels add XP to your Steam level; the Steam level XP chart shows how much that is worth.
- Players nominate, then vote on the finalists in each category. Valve does not pick the winners.
- One game can win several categories in the same year, as Black Myth: Wukong did with three.
- Older games keep competing through Labor of Love, which is for games still getting new content.
Frequently asked questions
Who won Steam Game of the Year 2025?
Hollow Knight: Silksong. It also won Best Game You Suck At in the 2025 Steam Awards, announced on 3 January 2026.
When are the Steam Awards 2026?
Valve has not announced them as of 23 October 2026. In 2025, nominations ran from 24 November to 1 December and voting ran during the Winter Sale, which in 2026 is 17 December to 4 January 2027.
What games won Steam Game of the Year?
PUBG (2018), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2020), Resident Evil Village (2021), Elden Ring (2022), Baldur's Gate 3 (2023), Black Myth: Wukong (2024) and Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025).
How many categories do the Steam Awards have?
11 since 2022. There were 8 in 2018 and 2019, 10 in 2020 and 2021, 12 in 2016 and 13 in 2017.
Did Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 win Steam Game of the Year?
No. It won Best Soundtrack in 2025. Game of the Year went to Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Which game has won the most Steam Awards?
Grand Theft Auto V, with four: two in 2016 and Labor of Love in 2018 and 2019.
Who votes in the Steam Awards?
Steam users. They nominate games in each category, then vote on the finalists during the Winter Sale.
What is the Labor of Love award?
It goes to a game that has been out for a while and still gets new content. Recent winners are Baldur's Gate 3 (2025), Elden Ring (2024) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2023).
Steam accounts that already own Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 won Story-Rich 2021 and Labor of Love 2022, and you can pay 0 % fees with crypto.
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Sources and editorial scope
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Winners: Valve's Steam Awards pages for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, with game names and release dates from the Steam store data for each app. 2025 categories, nomination window and badge: Valve, 24 November 2025. 2025 voting and winner date: Valve, 18 December 2025. 2026 Winter Sale dates: Steamworks Upcoming Steam Events. 2026 status: Valve's Steam news feed, checked 23 October 2026. Award counts are our own tally from Valve's pages.
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