Baldur’s Gate 3 Just Accomplished Something No Other Game Has Done

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the first game in history to win five major game of the year awards: those from BAFTA, D.I.C.E., Game Developers Choice, Golden Joystick, and The Game Awards. This historic achievement further underlines the massive success that Baldur’s Gate 3 went on to become, especially since that elusive fifth accolade was far from a certainty.

Larian Studios’ hit RPG started its impressive GOTY run almost immediately following its August 2023 release, having secured the ultimate accolade at the Golden Joystick Awards in November. The following month saw Baldur’s Gate 3 sweep The Game Awards by winning six of its eight nominations. Larian added the D.I.C.E. and Game Developers Choice GOTY awards to its tally in February and March, 2024, respectively.

The incredible run has now culminated in Baldur’s Gate 3 winning five BAFTA awards on April 11, including that for game of the year. In doing so, it has completed a historic quintet of major GOTY awards that no other title has ever collected to date. This achievement was far from a certainty until the very last moment, not least because the BAFTAs have twice already stopped other games from accomplishing what Baldur’s Gate 3 just did.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Achieved What Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3, and Elden Ring Did Not

The last time that happened was only a year ago, when Elden Ring managed to secure the first four major GOTY awards, only to lose out to Vampire Survivors at the BAFTAs. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had a similar run six years back, having won the same four GOTYs but ultimately lost the biggest BAFTA accolade to Giant Sparrow’s adventure What Remains of Edith Finch. In between those two attempts, God of War won all but the Golden Joystick GOTY award, which went to Fortnite.

Major GOTY Award Winners Over the Past Decade

Only three other titles managed to secure more than two major GOTY accolades since 2014, when The Game Awards were established; the 2020 ARPG Hades won the BAFTA, DICE, and GDC GOTY awards, but lost the other two to The Last of Us Part 2. Five years earlier, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won the GDC, GJA, and TGA accolades, but lost the other two to Fallout 4. Blizzard’s 2016 multiplayer shooter Overwatch also secured three major GOTY awards, but lost to Dark Souls 3 and Uncharted 4 at and the GJAs and BAFTAs, respectively.

Even before all the accolades started rolling in, the critical and commercial success of Larian’s latest RPG had many fans clamoring for a sequel. But the Belgium-based studio says it’s done with Baldur’s Gate and is instead looking to pivot to new projects, presumably based on its own IPs.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons and Dragons inspired RPG developed and published by Larian Studios. Featuring both a single player and cooperative element, players create their character by selecting a starting class, take on quests, level up, and engage in turn-based combat using the D&D 5th edition rule set.

Franchise

Baldur’s Gate

Released

August 3, 2023

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

30 Hours

Metascore

96

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical Only

Number of Players

1-4

PS Plus Availability

N/A

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players