Welcome to PC Gamer's annual Game of the Year awards. Each day, for the rest of the month, we'll be revealing another of 2022's best PC games, culminating in our ultimate Game of the Year on December 30.
To create this list, each writer nominates up to six games released within the last 12 months. Those nominations become our shortlist (opens in new tab). We then gather together to talk through the list and—after much wailing and shouting—decide on both our overall Game of the Year and the 13 other games we feel deserving of an award. Once the games are chosen, we assign them categories that exemplify what they each did best. The award categories are designed to fit the games we've picked, which is why we run different ones each year.
Alongside the main awards, each PC Gamer writer has also picked a personal favourite of the year. We'll be updating this page with new awards and personal picks throughout the rest of the month.
The Awards
Best Ongoing Game: Guild Wars 2 (opens in new tab)
Best Strategy: Total War: Warhammer 3 (opens in new tab)
Best Early Access: Disney Dreamlight Valley (opens in new tab)
Best Roguelike: Vampire Survivors (opens in new tab)
Best Puzzle Game: Strange Horticulture (opens in new tab)
Best Sandbox: Teardown (opens in new tab)
Best RPG: Persona 5 Royal (opens in new tab)
Best Design: Card Shark (opens in new tab)
Best Co-op: Monster Hunter Rise (opens in new tab)
Best Platformer: Neon White (opens in new tab)
Best Story: The Case of the Golden Idol (opens in new tab)
Best Comedy: Trombone Champ
GOTY Runner-Up: Marvel's Midnight Suns (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year: Elden Ring (opens in new tab)
Personal Picks
Katie Wickens: Two-Point Campus (opens in new tab)
Jody Macgregor: Hard West 2 (opens in new tab)
Lauren Aitken: The Witcher 3 – Next-Gen Update (opens in new tab)
Tyler Colp: Signalis (opens in new tab)
Evan Lahti: Into the Breach: Advanced Edition (opens in new tab)
Phil Savage: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (opens in new tab)
Lauren Morton: Roadwarden
Jorge Jimenez: Tactics Ogre: Reborn (opens in new tab)
Fraser Brown: Grounded (opens in new tab)
Tyler Wilde: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (opens in new tab)
Joshua Wolens: Pentiment (opens in new tab)
Shaun Prescott: Steelrising (opens in new tab)
Sean Martin: Warzone 2 DMZ (opens in new tab)
Andy Chalk: Hell is Others (opens in new tab)
Christopher Livingston: Farthest Frontier (opens in new tab)
Jacob Ridley: F1 Manager 2022 (opens in new tab)
Wes Fenlon: Dorfromantik (opens in new tab)
Robin Valentine: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (opens in new tab)
Sarah James: PowerWash Simulator (opens in new tab)
Morgan Park: MultiVersus (opens in new tab)
Mollie Taylor: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva MegaMix+ (opens in new tab)
Andy Chalk: Elden Ring (opens in new tab)
Past Awards
Game of the Year Awards 2021 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2020 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2019 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2018 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2017 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2016 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2015 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2014 (opens in new tab)
Game of the Year Awards 2013 (opens in new tab)
