2020 GOTY Scoreboard: Hades, The Last of Us Part II, and More

Nintendo made last year’s pandemic-related lockdowns more bearable with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Naughty Dog ruled the Summer with The Last of Us Part II. CD Projekt finally showed us their vision of the future with Cyberpunk 2077. And Valve brought virtual reality to a new level with Half-Life: Alyx (the first expansion to the Half-Life franchise in over a decade).

Oh, and Sony and Microsoft each launched brand new consoles in November.

But it was Hades, developed by the small team at Supergiant Games, that walked out of Hell with the most “Game of the Year” accolades in 2020.

You can find the other four, as well as more of last year’s most-acclaimed titles, after the break in the 2020 GOTY Scoreboard.

Hades

Major Awards (4)
Reader Polls (1)

Giant Bomb

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The Last of Us Part II

Major Awards (1)

The Game Awards

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Reader Polls (11)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Publication Awards (9)

CBR
Gamereactor Spain
GameRevolution
Gaming Age
The Guardian
Los Angeles Times
Nintendo Life (Best Switch Games)
Video Games Chronicle
Vulture

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Doom Eternal

Publication Awards (1)

DarkZero

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Final Fantasy VII Remake

Publication Awards (6)

Cubed3
Gaming Bolt
Kinda Funny
MinnMax
Siliconera
TheSixthAxis

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Ghost of Tsushima

Publication Awards (9)
Reader Polls (2)

Half-Life: Alyx

Publication Awards (3)

Gamereactor Denmark
GameSpot
Shacknews

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Immortals: Fenyx Rising

Publication Awards (1)

Quarter To Three

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Kentucky Route Zero

Publication Awards (2)

Glass House Games
Slate

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Microsoft Flight Simulator

Publication Awards (1)

Gamereactor Sweden

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Publication Awards (1)

GamesBeat

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Persona 5 Royal

Publication Awards (1)

Metacritic

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2

Publication Awards (1)

Uproxx

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Unranked Lists

Publications

 
And there were a lot of other great games from 2020 that might not have earned “Game of the Year” honors, but did appear further down at least one list…

  • 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (#7 at USgamer)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (#3 at GamingBible)
  • Astro’s Playroom (#5 at Giant Bomb)
  • Bugsnax (#9 at Mashable)
  • Call of Duty: Warzone (#7 at Time)
  • Carrion (#11 at Ars Technica)
  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (#22 at Games Radar)
  • Crusader Kings III (#4 at Glass House Games)
  • Cyberpunk 2077 (#7 at Den of Geek)
  • Demon’s Souls (#7 at EGM)
  • Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (#3 at Ars Technica)
  • Fuser (#11 at Paste Magazine)
  • Gears Tactics (#31 at GamingBible)
  • Genshin Impact (#16 at Games Radar)
  • Grounded (#32 at GamingBible)
  • Hardspace: Shipbreaker (#25 at Polygon)
  • Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (#8 at Hardcore Gamer)
  • If Found… (#2 at Paste Magazine)
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King (#20 at USgamer)
  • Phasmophobia (#12 at Games Radar)
  • Paradise Killer (#7 at GamingBible)
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure (#18 at Slant Magazine)
  • Signs of the Sojourner (#25 at Slant Magazine)
  • Spelunky 2 (#15 at The Guardian)
  • Spider-Man: Miles Morales (#3 at Mashable)
  • Spiritfarer (#4 at Entertainment Weekly)
  • Star Wars: Squadrons (#19 at USgamer)
  • Streets of Rage 4 (“Finalist” at The Washington Post’s Launcher)
  • Superhot: Mind Control Delete (#14 at Tom’s Guide)
  • Townscaper (#15 at Tom’s Guide)
  • Treachery in Beatdown City (#14 at Paste Magazine)
  • Umurangi Generation (#5 at Paste Magazine)
  • Valorant (#7 at Ars Technica)
  • Wasteland 3 (#7 at Shacknews)
  • Yakuza: Like A Dragon (#8 at Vulture)

Like Zagreus’s quest to escape the underworld, there will always be more “Game of the Year” lists from 2020 to uncover. But this collection of links appears to be a fairly representative sample of the critical reaction to last year’s releases.

Author: VGC | John

John Scalzo has been writing about video games since 2001, and he co-founded Warp Zoned in 2011. Growing out of his interest in game history, the launch of Video Game Canon followed in 2017.