The Players' Choice award at The Game Awards is, as the name suggests, fully voted for by fans. The category adopts a tournament-like structure, with games being eliminated on a round-to-round basis. And now, we're down to the final five — with the eventual winner being announced at Geoff Keighley's big show later this week.
The finalists are as follows:
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Genshin Impact
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
For what it's worth, we think the final five titles are all great in their own right, but as you can probably imagine, this is the epitome of a popularity contest. Genshin Impact, for example, is in the running — and there's obviously no way the live service action RPG makes it to the final round, in 2023, without its gargantuan community at its back.
But the same will be true of all five finalists, of course. Baldur's Gate 3 has been a colossal hit this year and has a hugely dedicated following. Heck, Phantom Liberty is an expansion, not a game, but Cyberpunk 2077's fantastic 2.0 revival has inspired its incredibly loyal community to get behind it.
Meanwhile, it feels like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are there because so many PlayStation and Nintendo fans, respectively, are always going to vote for their console's flagship 2023 title.
Still, it'll be interesting to see which set of fans rallies the hardest around their chosen game, because there's absolutely no doubt the winner will be decided by how well mobilised its most loyal supporters are.