The Steam Awards
| The Steam Awards | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Awarded for | User-voted favorites on Steam |
| First awarded | December 31, 2016 |
| Website | store |
The Steam Awards are an annual user-voted award event for video games published on Valve's Steam service. Introduced in 2016, game nomination and voting periods are concurrent with Steam's annual autumn and winter holiday sales, centered around the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Format
The Steam Awards are selected in two phases. In the first phase, Valve selects a number of categories, atypical of those used in gaming awards, and allows any registered Steam user to select one game available on Steam for that category. Valve subsequently reviews the nominations and then selects the top five games for final voting. These nominations are then presented to Steam users, giving them the opportunity to vote in each category. Following this, Valve announces the winners. Game nomination and voting periods are concurrent with Steam's annual autumn and winter holiday sales, centered around the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Awards
2016
The nomination process took place from November 23–29, 2016. The voting took place from December 22–30, 2016, with the winners announced on December 31. The awards received around 15 million nominations.
| The 'Villain Most In Need Of A Hug' Award | The 'I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award' Award |
|---|---|
| The 'Test of Time' Award | The 'Just 5 More Minutes' Award |
| The 'Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!' Award | The 'Game Within A Game Award' Award |
| The 'I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye' Award | The 'Best Use Of A Farm Animal' Award |
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| The 'Boom Boom' Award (community created) |
The 'Love/Hate Relationship' Award (community created) |
| The 'Sit Back and Relax' Award (community created) |
The 'Better With Friends' Award (community created) |
2017
The nomination process took place from November 22–28, 2017. The voting took place from December 20, 2017, to January 2, 2018, with the winners announced on January 3.
| The 'Choices Matter' Award | The 'Mom's Spaghetti' Award |
|---|---|
| The 'Labor of Love' Award | The 'Suspension of Disbelief' Award |
| 'The World Is Grim Enough Let's Just All Get Along' Award | The 'No Apologies' Award |
| The 'Defies Description' Award | The 'Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of War' Award |
| The 'Haunts My Dreams' Award | The 'Soul of Vitruvius' Award |
| The 'Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude! 2.0' Award | The 'Best Soundtrack' Award (community created) |
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| The 'Even Better Than I Expected' Award | |
2018
The nomination process began on November 21, 2018. Finalists were revealed in December, with the winners announced during a live broadcast on Steam.tv on February 8, 2019.
| The "Game of the Year" Award | The "VR Game of the Year" Award |
|---|---|
| The "Labor of Love" Award | The "Best Developer" Award |
| The "Best Environment" Award | The "Better With Friends" Award |
| The "Best Alternate History" Award | The "Most Fun with a Machine" Award |
2019
The nomination process began on November 26, 2019. Finalists were revealed starting on December 11, 2019, with one category a day. Unlike previous years, eligibility for awards was restricted by release date, with only games released after November 2018 able to be nominated, except for the "Labor of Love" category. Users were able to vote from December 19–31, with the winners announced on the final day.
| The "Game of the Year" Award | The "VR Game of the Year" Award |
|---|---|
| The "Labor of Love" Award | The "Better With Friends" Award |
| The "Most Innovative Gameplay" Award | The "Outstanding Story-Rich Game" Award |
| The "Best Game You Suck At" Award | The "Outstanding Visual Style" Award |
2020
The nomination process began on November 25, 2020, with winners announced on January 3, 2021. Nominees for each category were announced daily starting on December 17, 2020, with voting commencing between December 22 and January 3.
| Game of the Year Award | VR Game of the Year |
|---|---|
| Labor of Love Award | Better With Friends |
| Outstanding Visual Style Award | Most Innovative Gameplay Award |
| Best Game You Suck At Award | Best Soundtrack Award |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Award | Sit Back and Relax Award |
2021
Nominees were announced on December 22, 2021, with voting commencing until January 3, 2022.
| Game of the Year | VR Game of the Year |
|---|---|
| Labor of Love | Better With Friends |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Most Innovative Gameplay |
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| Best Game You Suck At | Best Soundtrack |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | Sit Back and Relax |
2022
The nomination process took place from November 22–29, 2022. Nominees were announced on December 18, 2022, with the voting process taking place from December 22–29 while the winners were announced on January 3, 2023.
| Game of the Year | VR Game of the Year |
|---|---|
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| Labor of Love | Better With Friends |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Most Innovative Gameplay |
| Best Game You Suck At | Best Soundtrack |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | Sit Back and Relax |
| Best Game on the Go | |
2023
The nomination process took place from November 21–28, 2023. Nominees were announced on December 17, with the voting process taking place from December 21, 2023 to January 2, 2024. Journalists highlighted some winners, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 (awarded for ongoing support despite the game receiving no major updates since 2020) and Starfield (awarded for innovation despite being received poorly on Steam); some suspected the votes were sarcastic or ironic, while others considered them a symptom of fan voting.
| Game of the Year | VR Game of the Year |
|---|---|
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| Labor of Love | Better With Friends |
| Outstanding Visual Style | Most Innovative Gameplay |
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| Best Game You Suck At | Best Soundtrack |
| Outstanding Story-Rich Game | Sit Back and Relax |
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| Best Game on Steam Deck | |