The 2024 Steam Awards Nominees Have Been Announced - Voting Starts Tomorrow

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December is the month of award shows, and we still have a bit more to go through! Apart from our Steam Deck Game Awards, Valve is hosting its own Steam awards, and now, we can see exactly which nominees have been voted on by the community to show up. With 11 different categories, including one specific for the Steam Deck, here are all the 2024 nominees:

Game of the Year:

• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Helldivers 2
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Best Game on Steam Deck:

• Balatro
• Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Hades 2
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

VR Game of the Year:

• Blade and Sorcery
• Davigo
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2
• Maestro
• Metro Awakening VR

Labor of Love:

• Baldur's Gate 3
• Dota 2
• Elden Ring
• No Man's Sky
• Stardew Valley

Better With Friends:

• Helldivers 2
• Palworld
• Satisfactory
• Sons of the Forest
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Outstanding Visual Style:

• Hades 2
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Neva
• Nine Sols
• Silent Hill 2

Most Innovative Gameplay:

• Balatro
• Helldivers 2
• Liar's Bar
• Satisfactory
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

Best Game You Suck At:

• Black Myth: Wukong
• Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Tekken 8
• The Finals

Best Soundtrack:

• Fate/stay Night Remastered
• Frostpunk 2
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Red Dead Redemption
• Silent Hill 2

Outstanding Story-Rich Game:

• Black Myth: Wukong
• Final Fantasy 16
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Mouthwashing
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

Sit Back and Relax:

• Farming Simulator 25
• House Flipper 2
• TCG Card Shop Simulator
• Tiny Glade
• Webfishing

Before I give my thoughts, I just want to congratulate all of these games. Each one is a fantastic experience, and while we all have our own opinions on which games we like better, there's no doubt that every game here deserves a spot where they are.

However, I am shocked at this Game of the Year list. They are all awesome games in their own right, but I am surprised to see Space Marine 2 there and Metaphor is nowhere to be seen. Same with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but this is mostly due to the very buggy launch and not the actual quality of the game itself. Personally, I hope to see Balatro win.

No game released this year has been continuously talked about and mentioned like Balatro has. Sure, we had incredible sales for Black Myth, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Space Marine 2 both revived their respective series, but Balatro put a new spin on something that worked extremely well and has been consistently the talk of the town. They were even able to take Minecraft off of the mobile storefronts when they released a mobile port of the game, which is not an easy feat.

I was also quite surprised by the Steam Deck award nominees. Balatro, Hades 2, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor make sense, but God of War: Ragnarok is not the greatest game to play on the Deck in terms of performance. I was actually quite excited to see Rogue Trader appear in the nominees, though, and I think it's the perfect fit due to how long the game is and how easy it is to pick up and put down.

As for the other nominees, seeing Mouthwashing appear in the Outstanding Story-Rich Game was a treat, though I think Metaphor should replace Black Myth there. Everything else made a lot of sense to me, and I am extremely happy to see so many amazing games getting recognized in various ways.

You can check out the full list of nominees on the Steam page for them.

What do you think of the list? Were there any games you think should be in those categories instead? Let us know in the comments!

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