Game of the Year (abbreviated GotY) is a title awarded by various

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

s, and shows to a deserving

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

. Many publications award a single "Game of the Year" to a single title that they feel represents the pinnacle of gaming achievement that year.

Organizations

Organizations and publications who award board Game of the Year awards include: * Årets spel (Sweden) * As d'Or / Golden Ace *

BoardGameGeek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to ...

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals ...

* ''Games'' (magazine) * Gry-Planszowe.pl / Gra Roku (Poland) *Le Diamant d'Or * Mensa *

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...

*Premio JdA (Spain) *

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

**Kennerspiel des Jahres **Kinderspiel des Jahres * Spiel Portugal (Portugal)

Awards

American Tabletop Awards

These are winners of the American Tabletop Awards, a US-based

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

award selected by a committee of board game media creators for games released in the previous calendar year. Early Gamers These are winners in the Early Gamers category, a category targeted at people new to board games. Casual Games These are winners in the Casual Games category, a category intended for gamers of all experience levels. Strategy Games These are winners in the Strategy Games category, a category for games that have additional "complexity, planning requirements, and duration" compared to Casual Games. Complex Games These are winners in the Complex Games category, a category intended for "longer-form games that typically appeal to more experienced players".

As d'Or / Golden Ace

These are winners of As d'Or Award, for the best

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

of the year submitted at the Cannes International Game Festival To be continued

Board Game Quest Awards

These are winners of the Board Game Quest Game of the Year Award. This award is presented to the best

of the year from the Board Game Quest editorial team, a United States-based board game media outlet.

Deutscher Spiele Preis

The

(German for German Game Prize) is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine "Die Pöppel-Revue", which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals and game clubs. The results are announced every October at the Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany. The Essen Feather is awarded at the same ceremony.

Diamond Climber Awards

These are winners of The Diamond Climber Awards, for the best

of the year submitted by Meeple Mountain, a United States-based board game media outlet.

Dice Tower Annual Awards

The Dice Tower (a website, podcast and video network founded by

Tom Vasel Thomas J. Vasel is a podcaster, designer and reviewer of board games, and hosted ''The Dice Tower'' podcast from 2003-2022, which has more than 300,000 subscribers. Vasel began publishing board game reviews in 2002 on BoardGameGeek, followed by You ...

) has been announcing awards since 2007.

ENnie Awards

The annual ENnie Awards (previously known as the Gen Con EN World RPG Awards) are annual, fan-based awards for

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

products and publishers hosted at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. The name of the award is derived from the

EN World EN World, also known as Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News, is a British-owned tabletop role-playing game news and reviews website founded in 2000, which grew from the earlier "Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News" site (which was activ ...

web site that hosted the awards from their inception in 2001 until 2018, and retains the name, although is no longer part of EN World. The ENnies were created by Russ Morrissey and Eric Noah and were run and owned by Morrissey until 2018.

Jogo do Ano

These are winners of the Jogo do Ano, for the best

of the year submitted to Spiel Portugal.

''Games'' magazine

The winners of the ''Games'' (magazine) Game of the Year are chosen by ''Games'' editors:

Golden Geek Award

The

Golden Geek Award was originally presented at the BGG.CON event in November, but is currently announced annually in March. The winners of the Golden Geek are selected by the nomination and voting of the user community of BoardGameGeek.com website.

Gra Roku

is a Polish award (the name of the award literary means ''Game of the Year'' in Polish) awarded since 2004 by the Gry-Planszowe.pl portal.

Le Diamant d'Or

Each year a list of around fifty “expert” management games known as eurogames, chosen and tested by a large number of pre-selectors, brings out 8 games among which the Golden Diamond jury establishes a ranking and devotes the prize to the best game of the year category expert to their favorite.

Mensa Select

These are winners of Mensa Select Award, for the five best

of the year submitted to Mensa Mind Games

Origin Awards

The

Origins Awards The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the

Origins Game Fair Origins Game Fair is an annual gaming convention that was first held in 1975. Since 1996, it has been held in Columbus, Ohio at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Origins is run by The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Origins was cha ...

on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 awards were given at the 1980

Origins Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

. The categories for the Origins award can vary from year to year, and there is not a "Game of the Year" per se. The Origins Award is commonly referred to as a

Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses" ...

, as the statuette is in the likeness of the

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

of the same name. Academy members frequently shorten this name to "Callie."

Premio JdA

Game of the year in Spain, PRemio al Juego de mesa del año
Premio JdA
, by an independent (of the game industry) jury.

Spiel des Jahres

These are winners of

, the German

award.

Kennerspiel des Jahres

These are winners of Kennerspiel des Jahres, an expansion of the German

award starting in 2011. It translates to "connoisseur/expert game of the year" and is meant for more experienced gamers.

Kinderspiel des Jahres

The Kinderspiel des Jahres is awarded every year to the best children's game by a jury of German game critics. This award is to children's games what the Spiel des Jahres is to family games. 2001 was the first year that the Kinderspiel des Jahres was officially awarded. Prior to that year, it was the Sonderpreis "Kinderspiel" (Special Prize for Best Children's Game). Since the intent behind both awards is the same, it is customary to refer to the 1989–2000 Sonderpreis winners as having won the Kinderspiel des Jahres.

External links

* pdf of awards available from th
As d'Or Award
page

References

{{reflist Board games Board game award winners Game of the Year awards (board games)