Ranker Breaks Down The Game Awards 2023
Ranker Breaks Down the Six Nominees for Game of the Year — And Their Fans
Photo: The Game Awards
Nominees for the 10th annual The Game Awards are out, and while fans of the long-anticipated Bethesda release Starfield may be disappointed, the list should otherwise have something for every gamer. The nominees for Game of the Year include shooters like Alan Wake 2, classic platformers like Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3.
But while every gamer certainly has some genres they prefer over others, taste in video games, as in all other things, is a complicated thing. Advertisers hoping to reach gamers shouldn’t clumsily assume that fans of Super Mario Bros. Wonder are also going to be fans of Mario Party Superstars, or that those who love the Baldur’s Gate games are similarly drawn to Final Fantasy. Don’t worry, though: you don’t need to spend weeks trawling gaming forums to understand which games attract which kind of fans. That’s what Insights is for!
To celebrate The Game Awards 2023, we’re digging into the data behind every game nominated for the Game of the Year category to find out who loves each of these games. The results illustrate just how diverse the tastes of this still-growing industry’s consumers really are.
Resident Evil 4
Photo: Capcom
When Resident Evil 4 was originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2005, it won almost universal acclaim and secured Game of the Year awards from multiple publications and awards ceremonies, including from The Game Awards predecessor the Spike Video Game Awards. It seems that history is repeating itself — the new game is now in position to be the first remake ever to win Game of the Year.
Those who love Resident Evil 4 are voting it up on competitive rankings like The Greatest Horror Survival Games Of All Time (69K votes) and more fun lists like The Coolest Religions In Video Games (Resident Evil 4’s Los Illuminados are ranked #11). These voters are generally drawn to games that, like the Resident Evil titles, are considered classics of the genre and come from Japanese developers. Fans of Resident Evil 4 are 6X more likely to love Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, as well as both Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. They’ve also got a taste for other horror games, including Dead Space, BioShock, and The Evil Within, all of which they’re 4X more likely to love. But while they do have an affection for some popular platformers like Metroid Prime and Tomb Raider, they’re more ambivalent about mega-franchises like Halo, Super Mario Bros., and Call of Duty.
What about beyond the games? Insights tells us that fans of the hit film series that sprang out of the Resident Evil games are 7X more likely than the average voter to love the Underworld franchise, and 6X more likely to love the Blade franchise. They’re also 2X more likely to DISLIKE the Jack Ryan franchise, which includes The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and The Sum of All Fears.
Alan Wake II
A survival sequel to the more straightforward shooter Alan Wake, Alan Wake II allows players to cycle between playing as a horror novelist trapped in an alternate dimension and as FBI agent Saga Anderson, a fictional character created by the author.
As you might expect, the majority of the games that fans of the Alan Wake titles love most are other horror games — they’re 5X more likely than the average reader to also love Dead Space, Heavy Rain, and Silent Hill 2. But fans also seem to be attracted to cerebral games with dense stories and inventive gameplay mechanics like Life is Strange, The Wolf Among Us, and L.A. Noire, all of which Alan Wake fans are 4X more likely to love. On the other hand, these fans don’t appear drawn to RPGs: they’re 2X more likely to dislike the classics World of Warcraft and Diablo II.
Baldur’s Gate III
Photo: Larian Studios
Those who love the Baldur’s Gate series, though, are understandably bigger fans of this genre. The first of these popular role-playing games based on the world of Dungeons and Dragons was released in 1998 and is ranked #27 on The Best RPG Video Games Ever Made (1 million votes), but this latest iteration has been hailed as “the new pinnacle of the genre.” In contrast with Alan Wake fans, fans of the Baldur’s Gate games are 7X more likely to love Diablo, 6X more likely to love Diablo II, and 2X more likely to love World of Warcraft. They’re also 5X more likely to love Fallout, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon’s Age: Origins.
That doesn’t mean these fans love every RPG, though: they’re 4X more likely than the average voter to dislike Final Fantasy VII and Persona 3. They’re also 4X more likely to dislike EA’s series of FIFA games, 3X more likely to dislike Halo 4, and 5X more likely to dislike Mario Kart 8, all popular titles with massive audiences. Our takeaway for Baldur’s Gate fans: they’re dedicated RPG enthusiasts with strong opinions about the genre. Without solid data guiding your decisions, it’s very difficult to guess their opinions of even the most beloved games.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Photo: Nintendo
A return to the franchise’s classic side-scrolling form, Super Mario Bros. Wonder was bound to excite longtime gamers who, judging from the popularity of the Resident Evil 4 remake, appear ready to return to a nostalgic past. But while the Mario franchise certainly is an iconic one (though it’s Yoshi and not Mario who’s the most popular character), it isn’t universally loved by gamers. In fact, fans of recent games in the saga like Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey are almost exclusively interested in Mario and other Nintendo platform games like Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, and Metroid Prime.
There are, however, some notable exceptions: Super Mario Odyssey fans in particular are 2X more likely to love both Resident Evil 4 and the first Spider-Man (2018). That’s not great news for Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Spider-Man 2, whose shared affinity may affect each of their respective abilities to get a plurality of the vote.
Beyond the games, we can also find out which recent movies Mario fans like, thanks to the data Ranker Insights has on those who love The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Fans of that film are 4X more likely to also vote up Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem on the list of The Best Movies Of 2023 (19K votes). They’re also 3X more likely to vote up the considerably more adult film John Wick: Chapter 4 on the same list.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Photo: Nintendo
More than 35 years after the release of the original Legend of Zelda game, the franchise is going strong, with millions of dedicated fans and new entries like Tears of the Kingdom scoring big nominations. Still, sadly, gamers say the titles won’t get the Super Mario Bros. Movie treatment, putting the Zelda franchise at #6 on Great Games, Ranked By How Impossible They Are To Adapt Into Movies.
Similar to the Mario games, the classic Legend of Zelda platformers tend to attract mostly Nintendo fans. In fact, almost all the games that fans of recent Zelda installments are more likely to love are other entries in the genre. Of the 10 games that fans of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are most likely to love, just one (Super Mario Odyssey) isn’t part of the franchise. They are, however, more likely than Mario fans to enjoy Pokémon games, including Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Emerald, and Pokémon Gold and Silver, all of which they are 4X more likely to love.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Photo: Insomniac Games
The first Spider-Man game was nominated for Game of the Year back in 2018, but lost to the rebooted God of War — now, Spider-Man 2 will get its own shot at the title. The gamers pulling for it are more likely to also enjoy other games based on movies and comic books, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Star Wars: Battlefront, and even The Simpsons Hit & Run. They’re also 4X more likely to love the Spider-Man 2 game that’s based on the 2004 Sam Raimi movie, even though the game was released almost 20 years ago and came from a different developer.
While name recognition always helps, what defines the taste of Spider-Man fans isn’t a love of big-name heroes, but of great action-adventure games. Fans of the Web-Head’s game have no bad blood with God of War and are in fact 6X more likely to love it. They’re also 5X more likely to enjoy 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, 4X more likely to love Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and 2X more likely to love Red Dead Redemption. The Nintendo game that Spider-Man fans have the strongest affinity for is Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, which they’re 3X more likely to love.