The Game Awards 2022, held on December 10, 2022, were a major event in the gaming industry, featuring a variety of award categories and announcements for upcoming games. However, the event faced criticism for the lack of diversity among the nominees, with many calling for greater representation and inclusivity in the gaming culture.

Despite this, the event saw some major victories for diverse developers and games. While “God of War Ragnarok” led the nomination, “Elden Ring” ultimately took home the night’s biggest prize for the game of the year, in addition to the best game direction, art direction, and role-playing game. The event also featured announcements for new games and updates, including the reveal of upcoming games.

During Elden Ring’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s speech, a crasher took to the stage, thanking “reformed orthodox rabbi Bill Clinton.” According to sources, the security then escorted the teenager off the stage.

Hence, Real Research, an online survey app, launched a survey on the Games Award 2022 results and controversies to gather public perception on this subject.

Highlights:

  • 47.54% have watched the Game Awards 2022 live
  • 14.81% were satisfied with the Game Awards 2022
  • 33.45% were excited about the Super Mario Bros movie

The Game Awards 2022

According to our survey results, the first survey shows how many respondents watched the Games Award 2022. 47.54% of the respondents have watched it live, while 21.7% have watched a full replay on YouTube, and 30.76% watched highlights on YouTube. In contrast, none of the respondents missed out on the Games Awards 2022.

the-Games-Award-2022
Figure 1: All the respondents have watched the Games Award 2022

The following poll reveals that 37.96% of respondents were looking forward to the musical performances during the event, (24.8%) new trailers, (19.04%) new announcements, (13.1%) awards ceremony, and (5.1%) all of the above.

Similarly, 33.45% were excited the announcement of The Super Mario Bros movie, (18.81%) Death Stranding 2, (16.51%) Hades 2, (6.8%) Amored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, (4.51%) Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, and (4.03%) Crash Team Rumble.

Game of the Year: Elden Ring

The 2022 Game Awards honored the top achievements in the gaming industry, culminating in the award for “Elden Ring,” a brutal open-world action RPG developed by FromSoftware.

When we asked our respondents which game they thought deserved the top title at the 2022 Game Awards, the results were fairly evenly split. Approximately 20% believed that “Elden Ring” was the deserving winner, while about 13% each thought that “A Plague Tale: Requiem,” “God of War Ragnarok,” and “Horizon Forbidden West” should have taken the prize. It seems that there was no clear consensus among our respondents on this topic.

Similarly, when respondents were asked if they have played the game Elden Ring; results reveal 31.9% have fully completed the game, 25.37% have completed the main story of the game, 24.39% have played a fraction of the game, and 14.32% have not played the game but watched gameplays.

The-majority-have-played-Elden-Ring
Figure 2: The majority have played Elden Ring

God of War Ragnarok, Another Winner

The majority of respondents (56.46%) said that God of War deserved to win more awards despite earning six awards, 35.84% stated that it deserved to win the Game of Year instead of Elden Ring, and 7.7% say it did not deserve to win any awards.

Furthermore, the next poll asks if the respondents have played God of War Ragnarok. 35.77% have fully completed the game, 30.79% have completed the main story of the game, and 21.65% have completed only a fraction of the game.

On the other hand, 9.43% have not played the game but watched gameplays and 2.36% have neither watched nor played the game.

The Game Awards 2022 Stage Crasher

While Elden Ring was awarded the title of Game of the Year at the 2022 Game Awards, the acceptance moment for the FromSoftware team was disrupted by a stage crasher who was subsequently arrested.

As four members of the Elden Ring development team walked up to the stage to accept their award, an unidentified fifth person appeared on the livestream and joined them. The unexpected stage crasher caused a disruption as the team accepted their award. Finally, the security noticed and escorted the crasher out of the arena.

In the next poll, we asked the respondents’ opinion on the Game Awards 2022 controversy. 15.02% found the interruption was funny, 16.59% said the interruption was a harmless prank, 19% said the interruption shows a lack of security level of the event, 15.62% did not find the interruption funny, and 33.77% said that it might have been a marketing tactic.

Lastly, the poll shows what respondents say about the Game Awards 2022. 27.99% were satisfied with the entire event, 13.48% were satisfied with the the nominations and winners, and 13.71% were satifisied with the announcements and trailers. In contrast, 13.17% said the event had way too many trailers, 15.13% said the 15-year-old’s interruption was worrying, and 16.52% were dissatisfied with the event.

Methodology

Survey TitleSurvey on the Game Awards 2022
DurationDecember 31, 2022 – January 7, 2023
Number of Participants20,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 21 to 99
Participating Countries Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong) China (Macao), China (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greanada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Maluritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar [Burma], Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.