The final shortlist of games for the GAM3 Awards 2023 are finally in! The biggest web3 gaming event returns on 14 December 2023 for the second year with games going head to head for bragging rights and a prize pool of over $2M, to set the scene for 2024.

We are bringing back the “oscars of web3 gaming” presented in partnership with Magic Eden this year, as 70+ traditional and web3 gaming experts come together to decide the leading games in this space; the event is also held in partnership with AD Gaming.

Initially, 214 nominated games were put in front of 70+ jury members to help produce the preliminary list of nominees. Based on gameplay, mechanics, replayability potential, "fun" factor, accessibility and overall quality - 40 shortlisted games have made it onto the next round which opens up for community voting today, November the 22nd.

In comparison, the 2022 awards saw 106 nominees in its inaugural edition, with the number of qualified games with playable versions more than doubled - reflecting the tremendous growth of web3 gaming throughout the past year.

The 40 shortlisted games spanned 9 blockchain networks, with Arbitrum making an awards debut this year with 4 shortlisted finalists.The top five networks represented in the final shortlists are Polygon, Ethereum, Immutable X, Arbitrum and Avalanche. 

Bringing together industry leaders from both traditional and blockchain gaming allows the awards to maintain a balanced sense of expectation, caution and excitement. This year the jury consists of executives and leaders from Amazon, Google, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Samsung, in addition to web3 gaming ecosystems, VCs, media outlets and content creators. 

This year’s prize pool for the winning games exceeds $2M+ and ranges from cash grants, tech service credits, marketing support, sponsored tournaments, infrastructure support, cloud gaming functionality, and much more from a wide range of partners including Amazon, Magic Eden, AD Gaming, Ultra, Blockchain Gaming Alliance, Naavik, Aethir, and Horizon among others.

The 40 finalists are advancing to the second phase of the GAM3 Awards, where the decision-making process involves both jury members and public voting. In this phase, the jury's votes has a 90% influence, while community votes will account for the remaining 10%, effectively giving the public a role akin to having 7 seats on the jury in terms of impact, which could very well act as a tiebreaker or shift the balance in favor of some finalists over others.

Bringing together industry leaders from both traditional and blockchain gaming allows the awards to maintain a balanced sense of expectation, caution and excitement. This year the jury consists of executives and leaders from Amazon, Google, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Samsung, in addition to web3 gaming ecosystems, VCs, media outlets and content creators. To highlight the increasing standard in web3 games compared to previous years. George Yousling, Director of Business Development at Polygon Labs states:

“Despite the macro headwinds, I’m encouraged by high quality games reaching open beta and early access. Games that are fun to play with fleshed out core loops, tutorials, in-game economies, and progression systems. User flows that remove friction through account abstraction and help get players enjoying the experience upfront as opposed to clunky onboarding.”

George Yousling, Director of Business Development at Polygon Labs

This year’s prize pool for the winning games exceeds $2M+ and ranges from cash grants, tech service credits, marketing support, sponsored tournaments, infrastructure support, cloud gaming functionality, and much more from a wide range of partners including Amazon, Magic Eden, AD Gaming, Ultra, Blockchain Gaming Alliance, Naavik, Aethir, and Horizon among others. 

Moreover, prominent names within web3 gaming, such as Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands, shared their thoughts on how the past year has contributed to the overall positive direction in the quality of games in web3. Robby told us in an exclusive interview:

“2023 is going to be remembered as a milestone year, on the one hand because the economic downturn meant that only the most dedicated developers continued building, but on the other hand, because the kinds of games that we’re seeing launch now are far more polished than the first generation of web3 games.”

Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands

Looking at the future of web3 gaming in 2024, Chris Akhavan, Chief Gaming Officer at Magic Eden added: 

“We are thrilled to see over 200 web3 games nominated for the GAM3 Awards.  Can’t wait to see who the winners will be on December 14th, and in the meantime, we all have a lot of playing to do!”

Chris Akhavan, Chief Gaming Officer at Magic Eden

However, for specific categories such as the ‘People’s Choice Award’ and ‘Best Content Creator’, the outcome relies solely on community votes. Both categories have already amassed over 50K nominations, giving the spotlight to 500+ games and 300+ creators from all over the world as fan favorites. Additionally, the ‘Games’ Choice Award’ is determined by shortlisted game studios voting for what is essentially, their own version of game of the year. 

This year, several games stood out to the jury as Big Time, Wildcard, Parallel and Deadrop shared the highest number of nominations with 5 each; followed by Illuvium and MetalCore with 4 nominations each. 

The final GAM3 Awards livestreamed ceremony is scheduled for December 14th, 2023 to be hosted on Twitch, YouTube and X among other streaming platforms; with gameplay premiers and exclusive premieres trailers already confirmed from Star Atlas, The Unioverse, among other titles. Last year’s event saw the first public premieres and exclusive footage from several games including Mythic Protocol Riftstorm, Mighty Action Heroes, and NFL Rivals - which has since amassed over 3M+ downloads on their mobile game.

Lastly, the event is also set to reward community members, voters and viewers for their participation. Magic Eden is set to host an exclusive free mint for voters which provides early access to future mints, gaming raffles and exclusive quests.

In addition, community voters and viewers have an opportunity to win rewards from a prize pool worth over $100k USD in prizes ranging from in-game items, early access passes, gaming PCs, gaming consoles and accessories.

The Game of the Year final nominees are:

• Parallel 
• Big Time
• Deadrop
• Wildcard
• NFL Rivals

The full list of nominees is as follows:

Most Anticipated Game

• The Treeverse
• Shardbound
• Shrapnel
• Star Atlas
• Off The Grid

Best Graphics

• Wildcard
• Off The Grid
• Star Atlas
• Illuvium
• Shrapnel

Best Action Game

• Metalcore
• My Pet Hooligan
• Deadrop
• Big Time
• Illuvium

Best Mobile Game

• Mighty Actions Heroes
• NFL Rivals
• Axie Origins
• Fableborne
• Skyweaver

Best Adventure Game

• Ember Sword
• The Beacon
• Illuvium
• Big Time
• Phantom Galaxies

Best Casual Game

• My Pet Hooligan
• Sunflower Land
• Pixels
• Fableborne
• Axie Origins

Best RPG

• Blocklords
• Ember Sword
• Illuvium
• Big Time
• Star Atlas

Best Shooter Game

• Mighty Action Heroes
• EV.IO
• The Bornless
• Metalcore
• Deadrop

Best Strategy Game

• Wildcard
• Blocklords
• Skyweaver
• Gods Unchained
• Parallel

Best Card Game

• Skyweaver
• Sorare
• Cross The Ages
• Gods Unchained
• Parallel

Best Multiplayer Game

• Deadrop
• Metalcore
• Big Time
• Wildcard
• Parallel

Best Esports Game

• Wildcard
• Metalcore
• Deadrop
• Parallel
• EV.IO

Best On-Chain Game

• Wolf Game
• Light Towers
• Pirate Nation
• Star Atlas: SAGE Labs
• Citadel 2.0

Best Fighting Game

• Champions Ascension
• AI Arena
• Titanborn
• Wreck League
• The King of Fighters ARENA

Best Sports Game

• Nitro Nation World Tour
• REVV Racing
• NFL Rivals
• Sorare
• Sparkball

Final voting starts November 22nd and runs until December 1st, directly on our platform on the GAM3 Awards page. Stay tuned for exclusive content, never-seen-before footage and gameplay premiers from your favorite games, winner announcements, and more on the December 14th ceremony.