Baldur’s Gate 3 wins BAFTA to become first ever game to snag 5 major GOTY awards

Many players consider BG3 one of the best games ever made.

The Half-Elf Druid Jaheira looks over her shoulder within a camp in the darkness of BG3.
Image via Larian Studios

In the eyes of many, Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t just the best game of 2023, but one of the best games of all time. Now, BG3 has proven to be levels above its competition by winning five major Game of the Year awards.

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The British Academy Games Awards’ 20th edition was held on April 11, with Baldur’s Gate 3 snagging the BAFTA Game of the Year award alongside a few other trophies. This marks BG3’s fifth major GOTY win, after winning GOTY at The Golden Joysticks, The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, and the Games Developers Choice Awards over the last few months.

This makes Baldur’s Gate 3 the first ever game to claim all five major GOTY awards. No game has managed to achieve this feat since 2014, when the first TGA was held.

The Cleric Shadowheart holds a small, pointy artifact in her hands next to a tree in BG3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a true gem. Image via Larian Studios

In the past, several games came close to collecting all five trophies, but they always fell short in at least one award show. In 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt snagged four GOTY awards, but lost at the BAFTAs to Fallout 4. The same can be said about Elden Ring, which secured four GOTY awards but didn’t win at the BAFTAs, where Vampire Survivors triumphed.

Anyone who’s played Baldur’s Gate 3 knows it’s a truly exceptional game. Many things make it a one-of-a-kind experience, including its excellent narrative, direction, music, gameplay, and sheer breadth of role-playing choices and consequences. Dot Esports wholeheartedly agrees, as we named Larian Studios’ production the best game of 2023.

So far this year, there haven’t been many titles to garner as much attention and critical acclaim. Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems to be the leading GOTY contender, though the year is far from over.

Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.