Which game won game of the year
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Executive summary
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025, leading the ceremony with a record haul of wins and nominations—reported as 9 wins from 13 nominations (or 9 wins from 12/13 depending on outlet) and described by multiple outlets as the night’s dominant title [1] [2] [3]. The award was presented at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 11, 2025, and accepted by director Guillaume Broche [1] [4].
1. The headline: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes GOTY
The Game Awards’ top prize for 2025 went to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which outlets uniformly report as the Game of the Year winner and the big winner of the night [2] [3]. TheGameAwards.com lists the award categories and winners officially, and BBC, NPR, The Guardian, VGC, Polygon and others describe Clair Obscur sweeping multiple categories in addition to GOTY [5] [4] [6] [7] [2] [3].
2. How dominant was it? The numbers and the records
Reporting varies slightly on counts, but the consensus is that Clair Obscur set new records: it led nominations with a record-setting total (reported as 12 or 13 nominations) and walked away with a record number of awards—nine wins according to several sources—surpassing previous high-water marks at The Game Awards [8] [1] [2]. Different live blogs and roundups give close but slightly different tallies; for example, Tom’s Guide and IGN cited the game’s many nominations and multiple wins [9] [10].
3. What the award means: prestige and mechanism
The Game Award for Game of the Year is presented as the ceremony’s most prestigious honor; nominees are selected by a jury of publications and outlets, and winners are chosen by a combined jury (90%) and public vote (10%) according to The Game Awards’ established process [11]. That structure means GOTY reflects a jury-weighted consensus across creative and technical fields as well as a public component [11].
4. Ceremony context: date, place, and presentation
The Game Awards 2025 took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 11, 2025; Geoff Keighley hosted the event, which featured celebrity guests and musical performances and was livestreamed globally [1]. Guillaume Broche, the director of Clair Obscur, accepted the GOTY trophy onstage—an image and narrative highlighted by BBC and other outlets [4] [7].
5. Notable runaways and exceptions from the sweep
Although Clair Obscur won most of its jury-nominated awards, it did not win every category it was up for: Battlefield 6 took Best Audio Design, and the fan-voted Players’ Voice went to Wuthering Waves—an example of how the public vote can diverge from the jury’s choices [1] [6] [4]. Coverage highlights that the Players’ Voice is wholly public-voted, distinguishing it from jury-dominated craft awards [6].
6. Why outlets emphasize the indie angle
Multiple outlets noted that several GOTY nominees in 2025 were independent games, and that Clair Obscur’s win marks the first French-developed Game of the Year and a rare indie success at the ceremony—coverage that frames the award as potentially signaling industry shifts toward smaller studios and diverse regions [1] [12] [3].
7. Competing accounts and small discrepancies in reporting
Mainstream outlets agree on the winner and the overall sweep, but differ slightly on totals and dates: some live pages list December 11 while a few liveblogs referenced December 12 for portions of coverage; nomination and win counts vary by a game or two across outlets [1] [9]. These are reporting variations rather than contradictions about the GOTY winner itself, which is consistently reported as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [2] [3].
8. Takeaway — what this win signals for games and awards
Clair Obscur’s win and record-setting haul dominated coverage and drew attention to indie development, French studios, and jury-driven recognition at The Game Awards; outlets highlight both the symbolic and practical implications—greater visibility for smaller teams and the continuing influence of The Game Awards in shaping industry narratives [1] [12] [2].
Limitations: This summary uses only the provided reporting; available sources do not mention post-award reactions from Sandfall Interactive beyond Broche’s acceptance speech nor long-term commercial effects following the win.