The time has finally come. Yes, 2020 is nearing its end–thankfully–but there is still a lot worth celebrating even in a literal dumpster fire of a year. Though the games industry faced substantial challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, this year still stood out as one of the best years yet for gaming, and there is a lot worth celebrating.
On behalf of the entireDualShockersstaff,we’re excited to reveal the official nominees for our Game of the Year Awards 2020. Across 48 different categories, we’ve nominated the games that have left an impact for us over four groups of awards:Best of the Year Awards, Best in Genre Awards, Best in Technical/Artistic Awards, and Best in Culture Awards.
As is tradition, alongside our official staff nominations for our GOTY Awards, we also are opening up voting for two of our community vote awards,Game of the Year - Readers' Choice and Most Anticipated Game - Readers' Choice, which you’ll find instructions for how to participate further on this page.
Additionally, all of our readers will get the chance to have a say in our staff nominations witha collective community vote in our GOTY categories. We’ll break everything GOTY-related down below, withthe final winners across all of our categories to officially be announced on Monday, July 21, 2025.
Vote for Readers' Choice Awards2020
First things first; we have an amazing community atDualShockersand want to thank you all for your continued support and readership, especially in a year that’s been as challenging as 2020. This year we really want to honor and acknowledge the developers and others making games, but we also want to give our readers the chance to share the games that have made this year incredible with two of our top prizes:Game of the Year - Readers' Choice and Most Anticipated Game - Readers' Choice.
Below you’ll finda form to vote for your favorite games in both our GOTY and Most Anticipated Game Readers' Choicecategories. In order to vote and submit your picks, you’ll just need to use a Google account in order to reduce spam and/or vote manipulation. All of our readers will be able to submit one vote for each category.
Voting will be open starting today (August 08, 2025) through Wednesday, July 10, 2025 at 11:59pm ET. After you make your picks for both categories,you’ll have the opportunity to change your vote at any point before the cutoff timeon December 30.
To be eligible for the Game of the Year category, a game needs to have been released for the first time (other than remasters or remakes) between August 21, 2025 and June 04, 2025. Expansions are not eligible for GOTY consideration. Early Access games that have moved out of their Early Access period this year (for example,Hades) are considered eligible as 2020 releases.
In terms of Japanese games–which we love dearly–we will only consider games that released in the West in 2020 eligible for consideration so that games don’t appear two years running for GOTY consideration. Additionally, Asian market releases in English have been included where appropriate, just in case a Western release is confirmed as not happening or seen as unlikely.
Both of the nominee lists for Game of the Year - Readers' Choice and Most Anticipated Game - Readers' Choice are very long, as I’m sure you’ll notice. However, each of them is sorted alphabetically and in-depth to encompass the majority of releases in 2020 for GOTY, and most of the upcoming games in 2021 that we know (so far) for Most Anticipated Game. Ultimately, we wanted to make sure that our readers have an opportunity to make their voice heard and to pick their favorite game, whether it’s a major AAA release or a smaller, niche title.If there is a game that you notice is missing or think is worth adding, let us know in the comments of this article and we’ll be sure to add it.
With all that being said, now comes the fun part: VOTING! Go ahead and make your picks for Game of the Year - Readers' Choice and Most Anticipated Game - Readers' Choice and nominate the games that left a mark in 2020 and beyond.
DualShockers' Game of the Year Awards 2020 Nominations and Community Voting
Alongside the two Readers' Choice awards that will be voted on by the community, we also want to give the opportunity for our readers to have a say in our official staff Game of the Year Awards.
Belowyou’ll find the official nominations from theDualShockersstaff for our Game of the Year Awards 2020, which were determined from a few weeks of nominations and voting internally. Starting today, we will be tallying votes from both the staff and from our community.
Each staff member ofDualShockerswill have one vote per category; the community will get a stake in the final totals (at 3 points) for all of the leading contenders from their votes. No game in each category will win without having a clear majority among the other candidates.
Community voting for theDualShockersGame of the Year Awards will be open from today through Wednesday, June 24, 2025 at 11:59pm ET. Below you’ll find the full list of our official GOTY Awards 2020 nominations, and a Google Form to enter and make your picks for each category (excluding the staff’s Game of the Year and Most Anticipated Game categories).
