Not surprisingly, "Baldur's Gate 3" won Game of the Year at the 2023 Steam Awards. It probably would have won more, but Steam Awards rules limit game nominations to a maximum of two categories.

The Steam Awards win follows The Game Awards' Game of the Year title and Golden Joysticks win, making Baldur's Gate 3 a triple crown winner for Game of the Year. in 2019, " When the new Baldur's Gate game was announced, we never imagined that the quirky little RPG studio from Ghent would so thoroughly dominate the video game scene, PC and console alike, but it has happened: in 2023, where trophies was there, Larian Studios brought it home. [After more than 40 million votes, we are delighted to announce that "Baldur's Gate 3" won Game of the Year and Outstanding Storytelling Rich Game at this year's Steam Awards. I would like to thank everyone who supported Baldur's Gate 3, and I look forward to seeing the game's success in the coming months and years."

The Steam Awards are a different kind of video game awards than most, with nominees and winners chosen by fan voting during Steam's Autumn and Winter Sales. This can lead to unexpected and frankly confusing results: for example, "Red Dead Redemption 2" has not been updated in years, but still won the "Labor of Love" award for its continuous release of new content. On the other hand, "Starfield" was widely criticized for not meaningfully innovating the Bethesda RPG formula, but won the "Most Innovative Gameplay" award.

But in the case of "Baldur's Gate 3," there were really no surprises at all, and no danger of any other game taking the crown: BG3 completely dominated 2023, winning a total of five Golden Joystick awards and six more at the Game Awards, with independent game companies BG3 also won a mountain of trophies from independent game companies. We were almost unanimous in naming "Baldur's Gate 3" the 2023 Game of the Year and said it was "not even close. Our sister site GamesRadar also called it "a new milestone against which the entire industry will be forced to measure itself for years to come."

"Thank you to everyone who voted!" Larian boss Sven Vinke tweeted upon receiving the Steam Award. 'What a great way to start the new year. Nothing is more motivating for a developer than when players appreciate their work. Thank you!"

The winning streak isn't over yet: Baldur's Gate 3 is in first place on BAFTA's Best Games of 2023 long list with 15 nominations; all BAFTA nominations will be announced on March 7, followed by the awards ceremony on April 11.