The Game Awards: We used data to predict the winners – IGN

The Game Awards 2022 are just one day away, and one of the big discussions every year is about which game will take home the final prize of the night: Game of the Year.

This year the nominees are A Plague Tale: Requiem, Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Even though IGN’s Best Game of 2022 Nominees Differwe thought it would be interesting to use viewership data from our coverage of the five Game of the Year nominees to predict which game will walk away with the award on Thursday night.

IGN data analyst Eric Zalewski compiled the data used for this experiment. We used a combination of data from IGN.com, IGN’s YouTube, Steam, and other sources to determine which games were most popular with gamers throughout the year. It should be noted that The Game Awards winners are determined largely by game outlets rather than the public, but we still thought it would be fun to see what IGN’s public thinks. . Read on to find out about our winning projects in a dozen different categories for this year’s Game Awards.

Most anticipated game

Final Fantasy 16
Hogwarts Legacy
Resident Evil 4
star field
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Predicted Winner

While there are plenty of great games to look forward to in 2023, this contest wasn’t even that close. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom destroyed the competition, with its trailer grabbing the most attention from our audience. And, Tears of the Kingdom articles drew nearly double the readership as runner-up Hogwarts Legacy.

Best adaptation

Arcane: League of Legends
Cyberpunk: Edge Runners
The Cuphead Show!
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Predicted Winner
Unexplored

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was by far the most popular adaptation among those choices for IGN audiences. If you combine all the opinions of these five nominees, Sonic 2 was almost exactly half of them. These Sonic fans are a passionate bunch.

Best multiplayer game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Predicted Winner
Multiverse
Monitor 2
Splaton 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Based on readership for IGN’s reviews of these five games, Modern Warfare 2 narrowly edged out TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. That’s not too surprising, considering MW2 crossed $1 billion faster than any other game in the Call of Duty franchise.

Best sports/racing game

F1 22
FIFA 23
NBA 2K23
Gran Turismo 7 – Predicted Winner
OlliOlli World

Gran Turismo 7 easily surpassed total viewership leading up to the release compared to the other nominees. We’ll have to see if the negative feedback on the game’s microtransations impacts its chances later this week.

Best family game

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – Predicted Winner
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Nintendo Switch Sports
Splaton 3

For this category, we looked at the number of users viewing IGN’s guides for each of these games in the first month after release. LEGO Star Wars had almost more guidebook traffic in its first month than all of the other nominees combined. The game was hugely popular, earning the best ever LEGO game launch.

best fighting game

DNF Dueling
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
The king of fighters 15
MultiVersus – Predicted Winner
Sifu

MultiVersus held our audience’s attention even after the review dropped, likely thanks to additional character drops like LeBron James, Rick and Morty, and more. It’s IGN’s People’s Choice for Best Fighting Game, closely followed by Sifu (which isn’t really a fighting game, is it?).

Best RPG

Elden Ring – Predicted Winner
live alive
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Triangle Strategy
Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Elden Ring has been one of the most popular guides on IGN over the past five years, matching the popularity of behemoths like GTA V, Breath of the Wild, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Best Action/Adventure Game

A Plague Tale: Requiem
God of War Ragnarok – Predicted Winner
Forbidden Horizon West
Wander
TUNIC

Horizon Forbidden West did not achieve this award, due to a decline in public interest following the release of Elden Ring. For this reason, God of War Ragnarok wins the award for Best Action/Adventure.

Best action game

Bayonet 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II – Predicted Winner
neon white
Sifu
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Bayonetta 3 garnered decent interest from audiences, but much of the Bayonetta 3 coverage focused on the controversy surrounding the game, rather than the game itself. Call of Duty remains unmatched in terms of player base and popularity, giving it the win here.

Best Ongoing Game

Apex Legends
Destiny 2
Final Fantasy 14 online
Fortnite
Genshin Impact – Predicted Winner

Genshin Impact’s consistent updates and event schedule propelled it above other nominees for Best Ongoing Game.

Best Indie Game / First Indie Game

Worship of the Lamb
neon white
Sifu
Stray – Predicted Winner
TUNIC
NORCO
vampire survivors

We combined the nominees for Best Indie Game and First Indie Game into a single category, finding that Stray would take both categories. Tunic came close, but the majority of its traffic came from guides, given its complicated nature. Cat’s game beats fox’s game here.