Steam Awards is an annual event run by Steam to pick out the best games of the year released on their platform in various weird categories. While other proper Awards have normal categories like Best Action Game, Best RPG... Steam has replaced that with a lot of peculiar titles - this, along with the fact that votes on these awards are cast by players, has made the Steam Awards highly regarded amongst gamers.
In this article, we would list out everything you need to know about this award... and the best game of the year, Red Dead Redemption 2.
1 - Steam Awards 2020 Winners
Overall, the winners are fairly predictable, with all the big names of the year getting awarded. The biggest surprise is probably Hades' failure of getting any award at all (it was "Best Action Game" and "Best Independent Game" in this year's The Game Awards).
- Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption 2 (Hades, DOOM Eternal, Fall Guys, Death Stranding)
- Sit Back and Relax: The Sims 4 (Microsoft Flight Simulator, Satisfactory, Untitled Goose Game, Factorio)
- Best Soundtrack: DOOM Eternal (Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Helltaker, Need for Speed Heat, Persona 4 Golden)
- Outstanding Visual Style: Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Battlefield 5, There is No Game, Marvel's Avengers, Black Mesa)
- Best Game You Suck At: Apex Legends (Crusader Kings 3, Ghostrunner, FIFA 21, GTFO)
- Outstanding Story-Rich Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (Detroit: Become Human, Mafia Definitive Edition, Metro Exodus, Horizon Zero Dawn)
- Most Innovative Gameplay: Death Stranding (Control, Superliminal, Noita, Teardown)
- Better With Friends: Fall Guys (Sea of Thieves, Borderlands 3, Deep Rock Galactic, Risk of Rain 2)
- Labor of Love: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Among Us, Terraria, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, No Man's Sky)
- VR Game of the Year: Half-Life: Alyx (Phasmophobia, The Room VR: A Dark Matter, Thief Simulator VR, Star Wars Squadrons)
2 - How did Red Dead 2 win The Steam Awards despite released in 2018?
Overall, with gamers themselves getting the vote instead of gaming journalists, the award is more of a popularity contest than anything else. More popular games would get the edge... and Rockstar titles have the highest advantage in this regard.
The Steam Awards is also Steam-centric. It is actually a PC Awards in disguise, with only the Steam Release date getting taken into account. Red Dead 2 PC was released on Steam in 2020... and that qualifies the game for this year's award.
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