The Game Awards 2022 are conscionable 1 time away, and 1 of the large discussions each twelvemonth surrounds which crippled volition triumph the last grant of the night: Game of the Year.

This year, the nominees are A Plague Tale: Requiem, Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Even though IGN's ain Best Game of 2022 nominees differ, we thought it would beryllium absorbing to usage assemblage information from our sum of the 5 Game of the Year nominees to foretell what crippled volition locomotion distant with the grant connected Thursday night.

IGN Data Analyst Eric Zalewski compiled the information utilized for this experiment. We utilized a operation of information from IGN.com, IGN's YouTube, Steam, and different sources to find which games were the astir fashionable with gamers passim the year. It's worthy noting that winners for The Game Awards are determined mostly by gaming outlets alternatively than the audience, but we inactive thought it'd beryllium amusive to spot what the IGN assemblage thinks. Read connected to find retired our projected winners successful astir a twelve antithetic categories for this year's Game Awards.

Most Anticipated Game

• Final Fantasy 16
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Resident Evil 4
• Starfield
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Predicted Winner

While determination are plentifulness of large games to look guardant to successful 2023, this contention wasn't adjacent that close. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom destroyed the competition, with its trailer attracting the astir attraction from our audience. And, Tears of the Kingdom articles drew astir treble the readership arsenic the 2nd spot finisher, Hogwarts Legacy.

Best Adaptation

• Arcane: League of Legends
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
• The Cuphead Show!
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Predicted Winner
• Uncharted

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was easy the astir fashionable adaptation among these choices for the IGN audience. If you harvester each of the views of these 5 nominees, Sonic 2 accounted for astir precisely fractional of them. Those Sonic fans are a passionate bunch.

Best Multiplayer Game

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Predicted Winner
• Multiversus
• Overwatch 2
• Splatoon 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

Based connected readership numbers for IGN's reviews of these 5 games, Modern Warfare 2 narrowly edged retired TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. It's not excessively surprising, considering MW2 crossed $1 billion faster than immoderate different crippled successful the Call of Duty franchise.

Best Sports/Racing Game

• F1 22
• FIFA 23
• NBA 2K23
• Gran Turismo 7 - Predicted Winner
• OlliOlli World

Gran Turismo 7 easy outpaced full viewership numbers starring up to merchandise implicit the different nominees. We'll person to spot if the negative blowback implicit the game's microtransations impacts its chances aboriginal this week.

Best Family Game

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - Predicted Winner
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• Splatoon 3

For this category, we looked astatine the fig of users checking retired IGN's guides for each of these games during the archetypal period aft release. LEGO Star Wars had astir much archetypal period usher postulation than each different nominees combined. The crippled was hugely popular, earning the best LEGO crippled motorboat of each time.

Best Fighting Game

• DNF Duel
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
• The King of Fighters 15
• MultiVersus - Predicted Winner
• Sifu

MultiVersus kept our audience's attraction adjacent aft the reappraisal dropped, apt acknowledgment to additional quality drops similar LeBron James, Rick and Morty, and more. It's the IGN assemblage prime for Best Fighting Game, trailed intimately by Sifu (which isn't truly a warring game, is it?).

Best RPG

• Elden Ring - Predicted Winner
• Live a Live
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus
• Triangle Strategy
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Elden Ring is 1 of the astir fashionable guides connected IGN successful the past 5 years, matching the popularity of juggernauts similar GTA V, Breath of the Wild, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Best Action/Adventure Game

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• God of War Ragnarok - Predicted Winner
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Stray
• TUNIC

Horizon Forbidden West conscionable fell abbreviated of this award, owed to a dropoff successful assemblage involvement pursuing the merchandise of Elden Ring. For that reason, God of War Ragnarok takes the Best Action/Adventure prize.

Best Action Game

• Bayonetta 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - Predicted Winner
• Neon White
• Sifu
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Bayonetta 3 had a decent magnitude of assemblage interest, but a batch of Bayonetta 3's sum was astir controversy surrounding the game, alternatively than the crippled itself. Call of Duty remains unmatched successful subordinate basal and popularity, giving it the triumph here.

Best Ongoing Game

• Apex Legends
• Destiny 2
• Final Fantasy 14 Online
• Fortnite
• Genshin Impact - Predicted Winner

Genshin Impact's accordant updates and lawsuit docket propelled it implicit the different nominees for champion ongoing game.

Best Indie/Debut Indie Game

• Cult of the Lamb
• Neon White
• Sifu
• Stray - Predicted Winner
• TUNIC
• NORCO
• Vampire Survivors

We combined the nominees for Best Indie and Debut Indie Game into 1 category, uncovering that Stray would instrumentality some categories. Tunic came close, but the bulk of its postulation came from guides, fixed its analyzable nature. The feline crippled beats the fox crippled here.

Game of the Year

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring - Predicted Winner
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Stray
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Finally, the 1 you've been waiting for. Based connected a analyzable scoring strategy that awarded points for starring abstracted categories similar the astir fashionable guide, review, video views, and more, Elden Ring came retired connected apical for our predicted Game of the Year winner. Elden Ring won 4 of the disposable 5 imaginable points, making it the wide favourite to win. But, that's conscionable our prediction!

Want to spot however adjacent (or acold off) our predictions are? You tin watch The Game Awards 2022 connected Thursday, December 8 astatine 4 p.m PT / 7 p.m. ET erstwhile the IGN Pre-Show begins.

Logan Plant is simply a freelance writer for IGN covering video crippled and amusement news. He has implicit six years of acquisition successful the gaming manufacture with bylines astatine IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him connected Twitter @LoganJPlant.