The Game Awards 2021 recap — all the big winners and game reveals as they happened

Good afternoon, faithful readers. I'm Marshall Honorof, a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering all things gaming. The Game Awards are just a few hours away, and we'll be providing constant updates on our live blog until the big show is ready to start.

First things first: If you want to know more about The Game Awards' categories and nominees, check out the official Game Awards Nominees list. There are 30 different categories with five nominees in each one, meaning that there are dozens of different games and personalities who could earn an award tonight.

Just be aware that voting in each category has already closed. If you didn't get your votes in early, all you can do is wait and see how the show shakes out. Complaining about the nominees on Twitter, however, has no expiration date.

If you're looking for something to do while you wait for The Game Awards to begin, you could check out The Game Awards Rewind. This part of the official Game Awards website tracks viewership, winners and announcements from every past TGA show, dating all the way back to the very first event in 2014. This is where you can relive everything from the Breath of the Wild gameplay premiere to The Last of Us Part II sweeping a whopping seven awards.

What will we see during The Game Awards 2021? The exact reveals are anyone's guess, and developers have been keeping their mouths shut on social media. However, we can take a few educated guesses, based on past shows.

First and foremost, Sega has hinted that we'll see Sonic the Hedgehog in some way, shape, or form. We'll definitely see a trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 film, according to Sega's official Twitter account. Does this mean that we'll get a new game announcement as well? It wouldn't be that far-fetched.

It's also been a while since we heard anything about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. The Game Awards have a long history of premiering Breath of the Wild content, from its original gameplay trailer to revealing its DLC. If Breath of the Wild 2 is really slated for a 2022 launch, then this would be the perfect time to give us an official title — or a solid release date.

One other rumor is that Hideo Kojima, the idiosyncratic developer behind games such as Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, will show up to reveal his new project. Kojima and Keighley have a friendly relationship, so this one is not impossible. On the other hand, the past few years have wreaked havoc on game development schedules, so we may also have to wait a bit longer. 

One fun aspect of The Game Awards is how many musicians and celebrities they bring in to participate. At The Game Awards 2021, we can expect to see some high-profile musical acts, as well as some famous presenters.

First and foremost, the musical guests this year will include Imagine Dragons and Sting. The Game Awards Orchestra will also be on hand to play some beloved video game tunes.

In terms of presenters, Jim Carrey, Giancarlo Esposito, Reggie Fils-Aimé, Simu Liu, Keanu Reeves and Laura Bailey, among others, will all take turns at the mic. Surprise guests are par for the course at awards shows, so we may even see an unexpected face or two.

Stay tuned over the next few hours as we stay current with all The Game Awards 2021 news.

We now have a timeline for tonight's Game Awards show. Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to proclaim that the whole event will run for three hours, plus a 30-minute pre-show. That means the event will unofficially kick of at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET / 12:30 AM BST, and run until approximately 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET / 4 AM BST.

It's a long show, which could mean we're going to get a ton of announcements. On the other hand, if past years are any indication, it could also mean that we're going to get a lot of advertisements and filler. Time will tell.

Within the last half-hour, Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to talk about tonight's musical guests. Earlier, he discussed a rehearsal with Imagine Dragons, and expressed his excitement over some special guests. Now, he's outside of Sting's dressing room, and memorialized the moment with a tweet.

One interesting thing we'll see tonight is the Intel Arc, which represents Intel's entry into the discrete GPU space. While Intel announced its Arc technology back in August, we've never actually seen it in action before. But a Game Awards tweet that went live within the last hour suggests that now might be the time.

Geoff Keighley's most recent tweet shows off the Game Awards Orchestra led by Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for the recent Black Widow film. Keighley did not go into detail about which game scores the orchestra will be performing tonight, but we imagine there'll be a few familiar favorites, as well as an exciting new debut or two.

Geoff Keighley spoke with Spotify to discuss his predictions for The Game Awards 2021, as well as to talk about the future of video game music in general. It's a fascinating read, if you're looking for something to do until the pre-show starts.

Speaking of which, the pre-show will begin in just about 45 minutes, at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET / 12:30 AM BST. We'll have live coverage the second it begins, so please stay tuned for all the latest news.

With just half-an-hour to go until the preshow begins, it may be worth checking out a promotion from The Game Awards Twitter account. If you order food via Grubhub and use the code ENDWALKER, in honor of the new Final Fantasy XIV expansion, you can get free delivery on any order that costs more than $15. You'll also get a pizza emote to use in-game.

This isn't precisely what we expected to cover while writing about the game awards, but if you were going to order a meal anyway, you might as well save some money on it.

We are one minute away from the start of The Game Awards 2021 pre-show! Let's see what's in store.

Sydnee Goodman is hosting the pre-show, and she's promised exclusive content for "completionists" who want to stick around for the entire show.

The first game up is Tunic, a Zelda-like adventure about a charming little fox. It will be available for Xbox consoles on March 16.

The first award is Games for Impact, which has gone to Life Is Strange: True Colors

We seem to be in an ad break right now. This probably won't be the last commercial of the evening, so hang tight until the Game Awards coverage resumes. In the meantime, they're advertising Risk of Rain 2, Tribes of Midgard and Godfall.

Resident Evil Village won Reddit's award for the Game of the Year. It's not an official Game Awards category, but it's interesting to hear what Reddit thinks.

King of Fighters XV will be out on February 17 for PS4, PS5 and PC.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is also getting made into a video game.

Homeworld 3 is coming in Q4 2022 for PC, courtesy of Gearbox. 

Simple has won best esports athlete.

Natus Vincere has won best esports team.

Kkoma has won best esports coach.

2021 League of Legends World Championship has won best esports event.

Telltale Games is back, and it looks like the first game from the revived studio is based on beloved TV series The Expanse. This game will focus on Camina Drummer.

From Square Enix, we can expect to see Babylon's Fall on March 3, 2022.

Chivalry II is available for a free weekend right now. There will also be a new expansion House Aberfell in early 2022.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, a big expansion for the popular action/RPG, will be available in summer 2022.

Thirsty Suitors looks like a story-driven adventure game where cooking might play a big role. It seems to be kind of a gender-swapped Scott Pilgrim.

We got a gameplay trailer for Evil West, which shows off the title's action/fantasy gameplay. The game will be out in 2022.

Have a Nice Death is a side-scrolling action game with a darkly comic art style, You play as Death and fight off any underling that gets in your way with a scythe and special skills. Early access will start in 2022.

Forza Horizon 5 has won for Best Audio Design.

Composer Takeshi Furukawa joined The Game Awards via livestream to show off a game he's been working on: Planet of Lana: An Off-Earth Odyssey. The game will be out in 2022.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will be available on March 17 for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Steam.

The full Game Awards Show is about to begin, so stay tuned!

Here's our first musical performance of the night! Who doesn't love Sting?

We're kicking things off with a sizzle reel, highlighting some of our favorite games from 2021. Ratchet & Clank, Resident Evil, Deathloop, Far Cry — you know the drill.

The Game Awards 2021 are officially underway! Our host Geoff Keighley is here.

Keighley is taking a moment to speak out against harassment and predatory practices. This feels timely, given that Activision Blizzard employees are staging huge protests against their employer due to unfair labor practices, misogyny, and other types of bigotry.

Giancarlo Esposito is presenting the first award for Best Independent Game. The winner is Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which also wins Best Debut Indie Game.

Looks like we've finally got a new trailer for Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga. This one appears to have some gameplay in it, showcasing Senua moving through aterrifying environment, encountering mythological creatures, and reckoning with the demeaning voices in her head.

Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga will be out for PC and Xbox consoles, but there's no solid release date yet. Next up is a new game announcement.

Looks like we're getting a new Star Wars game. This one will apparently take place during the High Republic, and deal with some of that era's greatest battles. It's called Star Wars: Eclipse, and it comes courtesy of adventure game developer Quantic Dream.

Now, we've got a few shorter announcements.

Global Gaming Citizen is highlighting drag queens who have become streamers, and channeled their love of gaming into a way to build communities.

Indie World highlighted the Nintendo Switch as a great place to play independent games.

AMD put out a quick ad for its Ryzen chips, which power a variety of gaming systems.

Bethesda is giving away a whole bunch of game codes, scrolling through the screen very quickly. We've got a screenshot above, so try one and see what happens.

Lost Ark will come from Amazon games in February.

There's a new Wonder Woman game coming courtesy of Warner Bros. and Monolith.

The next award is Best Performance, which goes to Maggie Robertson from Resident Evil Village.

Here's a big announcement! Alan Wake II will come out in 2023. Remedy's Sam Lake came all the way from Finland to discuss why now is the right time for this highly requested sequel.

Unlike the first game, Alan Wake II will be a survival/horror game rather than an action game with horror elements. Remedy will provide more information next year, but we won't hear much about it before Summer 2022.

Ben Schwartz, the voice of Sonic: The Hedgehog in the feature film, is here to discuss the sequel. We're about to see the trailer, but first, Jim Carrey will appear via prerecorded video.

I have no idea but that was all about, but OK, that was Jim Carrey, everyone. Don't grate it in the grinder, indeed.

The trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 brings back Sonic and Dr. Robotnik, and introduces Tails. There's some stuff with the Chaos Emeralds and Sonic trying to control his powers, as well as a respectable amount of slapstick. If you liked the first film, this should be up your alley.

And yes, Idris Elba is Knuckles.

Here's some gameplay footage from Horizon Forbidden West, which is still on track for a February 2022 release.

The Game Awards Orchestra is now performing music from Horizon Forbidden West, which does sound pretty impressive with full orchestration.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade will finally come to PC on December 16! That should make a lot of fans happy, especially since the release date is so soon.

Xbox Game Pass for PC is now called PC Game Pass, as we learned via a very strange ad.

There are some other ads coming up, so we're just gonna tackle the highlights.

Google Play highlighted games you can play on Android, such as Genshin Impact and Marvel Future Revolution.

Nintendo made a "thanks for playing" ad highlighting Metroid Dread and other first-party games.

Now there's an ad from Truth, which discourages teens from vaping and using other tobacco products.

Amazon Prime Gaming will have additional game rewards in December.

That's about it. Back to the awards proper, looks like.

Simu Liu is presenting The Game Award for Best Action, although he was a bit distracted by the promise of playing Halo Infinite later.

The winner is Returnal.

The next game up is a first-person shooter that takes place on Mars. It's Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, which will come out in February 2022.

Keiichiro Toyama, who created the original Silent Hill, has a new horror game in development, which employs horrific creatures who disguise themselves as ordinary people in a modern-day setting. It's called Slitterhead. There's no release date yet, however.

The next game announcement looks like a sci-fi/fantasy/survival/city-building hybrid, which pits you against mythological creatures, armed with relatively simple melee weapons and rifles. It's called Nightingale, and it will be in early access in 2022.

The Game Awards will now highlight its Future Class: promising young personalities in streaming, game development, and other related disciplines.

Just as before, we're now looking at a few smaller announcements and advertisements back-to-back. The second one is for Beat Saber Lady Gaga on the Oculus Quest 2.

Now there's a short trailer for Lord of the Rings: Gollum, showcasing its titular character.

There's an advertisement for that Grubhub/FFXIV crossover we discussed earlier. That ENDWALKER code still works, if you want free delivery, and some in-game pizza.

PUBG has a new trailer, highlighting that the game will be free to play on January 12.

Somerville is an indie adventure game in a sci-fi setting. It comes from a developer called Jumpship.

Here's some boogie-woogie music, courtesy of the Game Awards Orchestra, paying tribute to Cuphead.

Cuphead and co. will travel to D.L.C. Island in Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course on June 30, 2022.

There's a new Sonic game in the works, which looks like an ambitious open-world adventure. it's called Sonic Frontiers, and it will be out during holiday 2022.

Hideo Kojima appeared virtually to highlight a new film from his friend, director Guillermo del Toro. It's called Nightmare Alley, and seems to focus on an old-timey circus sideshow, with horror and suspense elements.

Guillermo del Toro appeared remotely to give the award for Best Art Direction.

This category goes to Deathloop.

Here are some rapid-fire awards:

The Players' Voice award goes to Halo Infinite.

The Best Role Playing Game award goes to Tales of Arise.

The Best Score & Music Award goes to Nier Replicant.

The Content Creator of the Year award goes to Dream.

The Best Multiplayer Game award goes to It Takes Two. 

The Best Mobile Game award goes to Genshin Impact.

Here are a few more ads:

There's a short segment about highlighting Black creators in the gaming space, from Facebook.

Google Play is highlighting Lineage 2 on mobile.

PUBG Mobile is a battle royale you can play on your phone.

Amazon Luna lets you stream a bunch of games on your PC, phone or TV for one flat subscription fee.

Warhammer Vermintide II is coming as well.

Ming-Na Wen is presenting the award for Best Narrative. The winner is Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Here's a chill exploration/crafting PS4 and PS5 game, where you play as a little girl exploring a dangerous, resource-rich island. It's called Tchia, and it will be out in Spring 2022.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was going to show off footage — before Amanda Waller herself showed up to quash the proceedings.

In spite of Waller's exhortations, we're going to watch a trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League anyway. Looks like a team-based action game where you take control of some fan-favorite DC supervillains, including Harley Quinn and Deadshot. The game will be out in 2022, although we don't have a more specific date yet.

Two voice actresses from Forspoken are here to show off a new trailer for the game. It will be out on May 24, 2022.

Here's a trailer for a new Warhammer game: Warhammer Space Marine II. It looks like a third-person action game, and will be out for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC. There's no release date yet.

Saints Row has a new trailer, which shows off some of the enemy factions, as well as more moment-to-moment gameplay. It looks like a wacky third-person open-world crime game, which seems fitting. It will come out on August 23, 2022.

Fall Guys will get a Nightmare Before Christmas tie-in. Looks like we're in for a few more ads in the meantime.

EA has an advertisement for a bunch of its games, including Battlefield 2042 and Madden NFL 22.

Mech Arena is teaming up with Able Gamer to raise money for charity.

Sessions offers royalty-free music for streaming.

WD is showing off its SSDs.

That's about it for ads — looks like it's time for another award.

Paul George will present the next award: Best Action/Adventure.

Metroid Dread wins this category for Nintendo and MercurySteam.

Dune: Spice Wars is based on Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel. It's a 4X real-time strategy game, and will be available in Early Access in 2022.

Will Arnett and Ashly Burch are here to discuss Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. There's a new trailer, too. It looks like Borderlands, but set in a high-fantasy world. It will be out on March 25, 2022.

The popular social deception game Among Us will soon be available in VR. That's pretty much the whole announcement.

Now we've got a K-pop performance to celebrate DokeV.

Genshin Impact will soon get two new characters, although we didn't get hard details beyond that. You can play the game on PS4, PS5, PC and mobile.

Steelrising is a steampunk action game that will come out in 2022.

We've got a few rapid-fire announcements now.

AMD has shown off some more of its gear.

Metal Hellsinger is a fast-paced, gory first-person shooter with a metal soundtrack, featuring real metal singers who voice the characters, including Randy Blythe from Lamb of God. It will be out next year.

Rocket League SideSwipe is available on mobile devices now.

Google Play Games will allow you to play Android games on PC, starting in 2022.

There's a new Star Trek adventure game, which seems to take place during the late Next Generation era. Star Trek Resurgence will come out for consoles and PC in Spring 2022.

Reggie Fils-Aimé is presenting the award for Best Ongoing Game.

Final Fantasy XIV has won, which seems fitting, given that the new Endwalker expansion has just come out.

The game also won the Best Community Support award.

This looks like a colorful, competitive multiplayer game, with a diverse roster of playable characters. Rumbleverse will be out for consoles and PC next year, in Early Access if nothing else.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is the sequel to the cult hit from a few years back, and will come out for consoles and PC in 2022. It looks like a similar gameplay style, albeit in a much larger world.

There's a new story trailer for Dying Light 2. A variety of characters cooperate and compete with each other to stay alive during the zombie apocalypse. The game will be out on February 4, 2022.

Crossfire X is a first-person shooter from Remedy, in which you play as a member of a special forces team, fighting your way through urban environments. It's not exactly clear what the "hook" is, but it will be out February 10, 2022 for Xbox consoles.

Fortnite will soon begin Chapter 3 which introduces innovative movement abilities and new environments to explore. The new Battle Pass gives you access to Spider-Man, which sounds like a big draw.

Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Hunt will be available in Spring 2022. We've heard about this game before, but its release date is getting closer. The game will be free to play.

Pop fans, rejoice: Imagine Dragons has arrived to sing a beloved song from Bastion. Looks like Arcane: League of Legends is also on the roster.

It's a pop performance, all right, complete with a surprise rap verse, courtesy of J.I.D.

The next award is for Innovation in Accessibility, which highlights how developers have made games more accessible for players with disabilities.

The winner is Forza Horizon 5.

Forza Horizon 5 has also won Best Sports/Racing.

Anticipated multiplayer horror game GTFO, first announced at a previous Game Awards, is out of early access and in full release as of right now. You can buy the game on Steam.

Here are some more advertisements. Looks like Amazon Prime Gaming, Sessions, and a few other things.

Also, Jeff Goldblum is playing Raid: Shadow Legends for some reason? You'll have to take my word for this; I narrowly missed taking a screenshot.

Chorus is out now for consoles and PC. We've actually have a full Chorus review, and we liked it quite a bit.

There's an Oculus Quest 2 ad; there's a Halo Infinite ad. Nothing too shocking there. And now we're back to the show!

It's been a long time coming, but we finally have a trailer for the Halo TV series, which will debut next year on Paramount Plus. It's short, but it has a lot of recognizable Halo elements.

Donald Mustard from Epic Games is onstage to announce the Best Game Direction award.

Deathloop has won, and it's not the game's first award tonight.

A few more quick awards:

The Best Esports Game is League of Legends.

The Best Family Game is It Takes Two.

The Best Fighting Game is Guilty Gear Strive.

The Best Strategy Game is Age of Empires IV.

The Most Anticipated Game is Elden Ring.

Elden Ring, which just won the Most Anticipated Game award, has a new trailer. this appears to be a story trailer — the narration sounds like it could be from the game's opening cutscene. It shows off spooky forests, sparkling castles and other locales you might expect in a FromSoftware game. The game will be out on February 25, 2022.

We're in for another round of advertisements, from Rocket League, to Global Gaming Citizen, to Resident Evil 4 VR.

We've got a Nintendo Switch ad, showing off upcoming Pokémon, Mario + Rabbids, Star Wars and Splatoon titles. And, of course, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 and Bayonetta 3 also make brief appearances.

Intel is finally showing off its Intel Arc GPU, demonstrating how it will run games such as Age of Empires IV and God of War (2018).

There's a game called Synced: Off-Planet coming in 2022.

YouTube Shorts are also getting a brief highlight. That's it for commercials for now — and, hopefully, for the rest of the show. It's been almost three hours, and I imagine most audience members are about ready for the proceedings to wrap up. (This live blogger, for one, is.)

We've got a mixed cinematic/gameplay trailer for a sci-fi third-person shooter called ARC Raiders. As part of a small squad of futuristic warriors, you'll take on giant robots in wide-open battlefields. It will be out next year for consoles and PC.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss recorded a video to introduce The Matrix Resurrections. This long-awaited movie sequel will be out on December 22.

Reeves and Moss are discussing The Matrix Awakens in Unreal Engine 5. They had some interesting commentary on how far video game graphics have come since 1999. And it's just plain cool to see two talented actors have a good time onstage.

The Matrix Awakens is actually available right now. Just follow the link.

The Game Awards Orchestra is doing one final performance before we learn which game will earn the Game of the Year accolade. It's a medley of songs from 2021's best games, including music from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, It Takes Two, Psychonauts 2, and Resident Evil Village. 

Neil Druckmann, who won the Game of the Year award last year, for The Last of Us Part II, is announcing the winner this year.

And, somewhat surprisingly, it's It Takes Two. It was up against some real heavy hitters, but pulled off a win.

And that's the end of The Game Awards 2021! Thank you for following along with Tom's Guide, and we hope you had as much fun as we did. (We also hope you can get some rest after this; it's been a long night.)

Congratulations to all the winners, and stay tuned to Tom's Guide for more gaming coverage in the coming weeks. Our own Game of the Year story is not too far off!