After over a month of voting, Valve today revealed the winners of The Steam Awards, or what amounts to a “greatest-hits” victory lap for some of the digital retail platform’s most played games.
The awards were announced during the Autumn Steam sale near the end of November, with categories ranging from The “Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!” Award to The “Best Use Of A Farm Animal” Award. Users were encouraged to nominate the games they thought most deserved to win each category with Valve giving the people who did so special badges. The company also chose to accept a number of write-in categories from players, including “The ‘Boom Boom’ Award,” but not some of the more tongue-in-cheek entries, including several variations on “Game Most In Need Of A Sequel.”
Despite all the fun people had nominating games, however, we can now devote our time and energy to picking over the winners:
- “Villain Most In Need Of A Hug” Award: Portal 2
- The “I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award” Award: Euro Truck Simulator 2
- The “Test of Time” Award: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- The “Just 5 More Minutes” Award: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- The “Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!” Award: Grand Theft Auto V
- The “Game Within A Game” Award: Grand Theft Auto V
- The “I’m Not Crying, There’s Something In My Eye” Award: The Walking Dead
- The “Best Use Of A Farm Animal” Award: Goat Simulator
- The “Boom Boom” Award: DOOM
- The “Love/Hate Relationship” Award: Dark Souls III
- The “Sit Back and Relax” Award: Euro Truck Simulator 2
- The “Better With Friends” Award: Left 4 Dead 2
Yes, it turns out that that Steam users really like Valve games. Also Grand Theft Auto V. Of course, not all of Valve’s games managed to win. Dota 2 lost to Dark Souls III in the “Love/Hate” category, and Team Fortress 2 was passed over in favor of Skyrim for games that have stood the “Test of Time.”
Scanning over the data for some of the most active games on Steam reveals a list not entirely dissimilar from the one above, except with games like Rocket League and Football Manager 2017 conspicuously absent. And of course the Steam Winter sale, one of the big reasons the Steam Awards were no doubt created in the first place, isn’t set to conclude until January 2, 2017, with many of the games highlighted in the awards still heavily discounted.
You can check the official page to see a full list of all the runners-up for each category.