The Steam Awards 2023: All nominees, how to vote, and more

The Steam Awards 2023 has arrived, letting players vote on some of their favorite games from this year across a variety of categories. This event went live alongside the Steam Winter Sale 2023, the annual sale on Valve's platform, which comes packed with some jaw-dropping discounts and offers.

Unlike The Game Awards, the Steam Awards' winners are primarily determined through player votes. The nominees are divided across non-traditional categories instead of the usual gaming genres as well. As such, this event features a wider palette of games, often mixing indie titles with AAA behemoths — even in categories like Game of the Year.

Here's a quick look at all the Steam Awards 2023 nominees, as well as how you can place your votes across each of the categories.

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All Steam Awards 2023 Nominees

The Steam Awards 2023, similar to last year's event, features categories ranging from Best VR Game to Most Innovative Gameplay and, ultimately, the Game of the Year. However, one new segment that has been added this year — thanks to the rise in popularity of handheld gaming — is the "Best Game on Steam Deck Award."

Here are all the categories and their respective nominees for the Steam Awards 2023:

Game of the Year

• Resident Evil 4
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Lethal Company
• Baldur's Gate 3
• EA Sports FC 24

VR Game of the Year

• Gorilla Tag
• I Expect You To Die 3
• Labyrinthine
• F1 23
• Ghosts Of Tabor

Labor Of Love Award

• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Dota 2
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Rust
• Apex Legends

Best Game On Steam Deck Award

• The Outlast Trials
• Dredge
• Diablo 4
• Brotato
• Hogwarts Legacy

Better With Friends Award

• Warhammer 40K: Darktide
• Lethal Company
• Party Animals
• Sunkenland
• Sons Of The Forest

Outstanding Visual Style Award

• Atomic Heart
• High On Life
• Cocoon
• Darkest Dungeon 2
• Inward

Most Innovative Gameplay Award

• Your Only Move Is Hustle
• Remnant 2
• Shadows Of Doubt
• Contraband Police
• Starfield

Best Game You Suck At Award

• Sifu
• Lords Of The Fallen
• Overwatch
• EA Sports FC 24
• Street Fighter 6

Best soundtrack Award

• Pizza Tower
• The Last Of Us: Part One
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Persona 5 Tactica
• Chants Of Sennaar

Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award

• Resident Evil 4
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Love Is All Around
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Lies Of P

Sit Back And Relax Award

• Train Sim World 4
• Coral Island
• Dave The Diver
• Cities Skylines 2
• Portion Craft

A few surprising omissions from this year's Steam Awards are titles like FromSoftware's Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon, Blizzard's Diablo 4, Turn 10's Forza Motorsport, Team Ninja's Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, EA Motive's Dead Space, and more.

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How to vote in Steam Awards 2023

Voting for your favorite games is a fairly straightforward process. You just need to have the Steam client installed on your PC and have a functional account on it. You can also use this platform's mobile app for Android and iOS, as well as Steam's official website to cast your votes.

Here's how you can place your votes for this event:

• Open Steam on your PC (or Steam mobile app) and scroll down from the homepage to reach the Steam Awards 2023 banner.
• Click on the Steam Awards banner to land on the Categories page.
• Scroll down to each category to place your vote for your favorite game in it. You can do this for all the categories.

The Steam Awards are live from December 21, 2023, till January 2, 2024, at 10 am PT. Additionally, placing your votes for each of the 11 categories will reward you with a unique profile sticker.