Baldur’s Gate 3has won the Players' Voice award atThe Game Awards 2023. To get the prize, it fended off fellow nominees includingHogwarts LegacyandStarfield, despite both games' passionate player bases eager to see them take the top spot.
In the final, Baldur’s Gate 3 beat Cyberpunk 2077: Phatnom Liberty, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Genshin Impact. It adds to Baldur’s Gate 3’s already impressive list of accolades, alsotaking home the prizes for Game of the Year, Best RPG, Best Multiplayer, Best Community Support, andBest Performance through Astation actor Neil Newbon.
Players' Voice is the only category completely determined by audience members and is voted on in three waves. With Baldur’s Gate 3 also winning the big Game of the Year award at the end of the show, it’s now officially the first game to win both thatandPlayers' Voice, showing that fans and critics are in agreement here.
The other categories are still voted on by audience members, but the shortlist is decided by The Game Awards' jury, made up of media outlets and influencers.
While it’s not the biggest moment of the night, Players' Voice tends to be a highly competitive category. Unlike the other categories, there’s a much longer list of candidates, as audience members vote in three rounds to determine the year’s most popular game. It also doesn’t have to be a 2023 release, with live services still receiving updates also up for consideration. We saw this last year, withGenshin Impactwinning over all of the then-recent releases.
However, it’s also seen as a way for audience members to air their grievances with the main categories, giving them a chance to celebrate a game they felt had been snubbed. Last year, there was afan-run campaign to see Sonic Frontiers win the prize, only for it to bebeaten out by Genshin Impact in the final round.
This year, many called on fans to vote for Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy. Starfield is up for just one other award, and Hogwarts Legacy is up for none - not particularly surprising, given how big this year has been, but it was enough to frustrate fans. Still, their efforts were insufficient, andneithergamemade it into the final round. In the end, none of the games that did get through could take the top spot from Baldur’s Gate 3 anyway.
