Bafta has announced the nominations for the 20th Bafta games awards, which will take place in London on April 11.
Leading the pack this year are Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 with 10 nominations; Spider-Man 2 with nine; Alan Wake 2 with eight; and six apiece for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Hi-Fi Rush, a colourful music-based action game from Japan’s Tango Gameworks, picked up five nominations, as did Mintrocket’s breakout hit Dave the Diver.
Bafta has been celebrating video games’ creative achievements alongside those of the film and TV industries since 1998, formerly as the Bafta interactive entertainment awards, launching the Bafta games awards in 2004 as its own event. The awards are voted on by a combination of Bafta’s professional membership and by selected specialist juries, with the EE’s players’ choice award decided by a public vote.
At last year’s awards, retro-styled indie monster-shooter Vampire Survivors surprised everyone by beating huge blockbuster contenders Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok for the best game gong. This year the nominees are smash-hit RPG Baldur’s Gate, horror thriller Alan Wake 2, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros Wonder, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from PlayStation’s Insomniac Games, and Dave the Diver, a cheerful game about a sushi chef who hunts his own fish.
Changes to the awards process this year included giving three more months of voting time to members and publicly sharing the 60-game longlist. Emma Baehr, executive director of awards and content at Bafta, highlighted the diversity of nominations, which include several first-time developers. “We’re seeing big-budget games, such as Baldur’s Gate leading with 10, but there’s also a British indie game, Viewfinder, that has four nominations,” she said. “Eleven of the 12 performers in the performance categories are first-time nominees whom we look forward to welcoming to Bafta.”
The full list of nominations is below:
Animation
Alan Wake 2
Hi-Fi Rush
Hogwarts Legacy
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Super Mario Bros Wonder
Artistic achievement
Alan Wake 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cocoon
Diablo IV
Final Fantasy XVI
Hi-Fi Rush
Audio achievement
Alan Wake 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Hi-Fi Rush
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
Best game
Alan Wake 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
Dave the Diver
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Super Mario Bros Wonder
British game
Cassette Beasts
Dead Island 2
Disney Illusion Island
Football Manager 2024
Viewfinder
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin
Debut game
Cocoon
Dave the Diver
Dredge
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
Venba
Viewfinder
Evolving game
Cyberpunk 2077
Final Fantasy XVI Online
Fortnite
Forza Horizon 5
Genshin Impact
No Man’s Sky
Family
Cocoon
Dave the Diver
Disney Illusion Island
Hi-Fi Rush
Hogwarts Legacy
Super Mario Bros Wonder
Game beyond entertainment
Chants of Sennaar
Goodbye Volcano High
Tchia
Terra Nil
Thirsty Suitors
Venba
Game design
Cocoon
Dave the Diver
Dredge
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Viewfinder
Multiplayer
Baldur’s Gate 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Diablo IV
Forza Motorsport
Party Animals
Super Mario Bros Wonder
Music
Alan Wake 2
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Baldur’s Gate 3
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Interactive entertainment
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
Narrative
Alan Wake 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
Dredge
Final Fantasy XVI
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
New intellectual property
Chants of Sennaar
Dave the Diver
Dredge
Hi-Fi Rush
Jusant
Viewfinder
Performer in a leading role
Amelia Tyler as Narrator in Baldur’s Gate 3
Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Neil Newbon as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3
Samantha Béart as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3
Yuri Lownenthal as Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Performer in a supporting role
Andrew Wincott as Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3
Debra Wilson as Cere Junda in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Ralph Ineson as Cidolfus “Cid” Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI
Sam Lake as Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2
Tony Todd as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Tracy Wiles as Jaheira in Baldur’s Gate 3
Technical achievement
Alan Wake 2
Final Fantasy XVI
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Entertainment
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Starfield
EE Players’ choice (voted for by the public)
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077
Fortnite
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Lethal Company
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
