We said in January that Baldur’s Gate 3 had completed its Game of the Year sweep by claiming the top honor in the 2023 Steam Awards. What we did not anticipate is that it would continue kicking ass through 2024. Maybe we should have been a little more forward-thinking on that one, because Larian’s D&D RPG just claimed the Best Game title, and four others, at the 2024 BAFTA Awards.
Baldur’s Gate 3 beat out a slate of very impressive contenders for the win including Alan Wake 2, Dave the Diver, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The trophy will sit nicely alongside earlier Game of the Year hardware taken home from The Game Awards, the Golden Joysticks, and the Steam Awards. It’s a genuinely remarkable stretch of domination for a game I honestly thought might have a shot at doing business with oldster RPG players and fans of Larian’s past work when it was announced in 2019. A gross underestimation, as it turns out.
Along with the Best Game title, Baldur’s Gate 3 also took home wins for best music, narrative, performer in a supporting role—specifically, that went to Andrew Wincott for his portrayal of the charming devil Raphael—and the EE Players’ Choice Award, the only BAFTA award voted on by players.
Larian boss Swen Vincke was somewhat more restrained in his acceptance speech than he was at GDC, when he pointedly blamed “greed” among game industry executives for “fucking this thing up for so long.” Instead, he took the more traditional awards show route of thanking family, friends, and everyone who worked on the game.
“There’s really a truckload of partners who helped us make this game,” he said. “We didn’t do this on our own. I once counted, I came to over 2,000 people that worked on Baldur’s Gate 3, which is incredible, over six years.” He also made a point of calling out the Baldur’s Gate 3 actors, “who spent so much time in those suits.”
Despite being a story-based RPG that came out more than eight months ago, Baldur’s Gate 3 remains one of the most popular games on Steam: There are at this moment more than 77,000 people playing it, good enough for the 12th spot on Steam’s Most Played chart.
And despite that monstrous, runaway success, Larian has officially and emphatically said its time with the famed RPG series is over: It will continue to support Baldur’s Gate 3 (and a new hotfix actually just dropped yesterday) but Vincke said in March that the studio will not be making any DLC or sequels.
Larian is finished with Baldur’s Gate 3, but it may not be finished collecting awards: The game is nominated in multiple categories, including (of course) Game of the Year, in the 2024 Gayming Awards, which will take place in June. Will the midpoint of 2024 finally signal the end of Baldur’s Gate 3’s genuinely awesome demolition of its rivals? At this point I have to imagine that every other game studio on the planet is hoping so.
The full list of 2024 BAFTA Award winners is below.
🏆 Animation – Hi-Fi Rush
🏆 Artistic Achievement – Alan Wake 2
🏆 Audio Achievement – Alan Wake 2
🏆 Best Game – Baldur’s Gate 3
🏆 British Game: –Viewfinder
🏆 Debut Game – Venba
🏆 Evolving Game – Cyberpunk 2077
🏆 Family – Super Mario Bros Wonder
🏆 Game Beyond Entertainment – Tchia
🏆 Game Design – Dave the Diver
🏆 Multiplayer – Super Mario Bros Wonder
🏆 Music – Baldur’s Gate 3
🏆 Narrative – Baldur’s Gate 3
🏆 New Intellectual Property – Viewfinder
🏆 Performer in a Leading Role – Nadji Peter (Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2)
🏆 Performer in a Supporting Role – Andrew Wincott (Raphael, Baldur’s Gate 3)
🏆 Technical Achievement – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
🏆 EE Players’ Choice Award – Baldur’s Gate 3