The Game Awards 2022 GOTY nominations led by God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 cops a surprise GOTY nomination alongside Stray and Horizon Forbidden West

God of War Ragnarök which launched just last week, leads The Game Awards 2022 with 10 nominations announced on Monday, and FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is up for seven at the Dec. 8 show, where fans will celebrate the year’s best games — and, of course, keep an eye on all the trailers for things to come in 2023.

The game-of-the-year nominees include PlayStation exclusives God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, and Stray, alongside the Nintendo Switch-only Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and multiplatform launches Elden Ring and A Plague Tale: Requiem. All of the GOTY contenders are multiple nominees in other categories, too.

Who knows what will close out the evening on Dec. 8 with the GOTY announcement. The critical and commercial reception for Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök would seem to put either in the driver’s seat. And even if The Game Awards’ biggest draw is all of the “World Premiere” trailers for games that haven’t yet launched, this is still an event for fans, so there’s plenty of fan service and affirmation in seeing your favorite title get a thumbs-up.

So, with that said, here are the nominees for The Game Awards 2022, airing Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. EST on Twitch and YouTube.

Game of the year

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Best Direction

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Narrative

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)

Best Art Direction

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Score and Music

• Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
• Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
• Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
• Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Audio

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)

Best Performance (Actor)

• Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
• Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök
• Manon Gage, Immortality
• Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök

Games for Impact Award

• A Memoir Blue (Cloisters Interactive/Annapurna)
• As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
• Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
• Endling — Extinction is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
• Hindsight (Team Hindsight/Annapurna)
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)

Best Ongoing Game

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Best Independent Game

• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Sifu (Sloclap)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• Tunic (TUNIC Team/Finji)

Best Sport or Racing Game

• F1 22 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
• FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver/Romania/EA Sports)
• NBA 2K23 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
• OlliOlli World (Roll 7/Private Division)

Best Multiplayer Game

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward/• Activision)
• MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
• Overwatch 2 (Blizzard)
• Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)