As The Game Awards enters its 12th year, it’s worth looking back on some of the highs and lows from TGAs past. Out of the ashes of the Spike VGAs, creator and host Geoff Keighley created an annual gaming staple that highlights some of the biggest and best games for millions watching from home. It honors creators and brands, seeking to elevate the craft and art of games while also leaving room for giant walking razor blade sponsorships. Here are 17 of the best and worst Game Awards moments going back to 2014.
“Fuck The Oscars!” – The Game Awards 2017
Any list of iconic or famous Game Awards moments must legally include what is arguably the show’s most well-known clip: That time Split Ficition and It Takes Two director Josef Fares took control of the show for a few minutes and yelled “Fuck the Oscars!” in front of a visibly confused Geoff. Great stuff. – Zack Zwiezen
Ark 2 starring Vin Diesel is announced – The Game Awards 2020
It was funny when Wildcard Studios announced an Ark sequel despite many fans at the time feeling the original game needed more updates. It was even funnier when Vin Diesel appeared in the trailer. And it’s really, really funny that five years later, the game appears to be vaporware and has yet to launch. But it might finally see the light of day in 2027. – Zack Zwiezen
The leaders of the three console companies share a stage – The Game Awards 2018
The Game Awards foreshadowed the end of the console wars when Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aimé, Xbox’s Phil Spencer, and PlayStation’s Shawn Layden took the stage together at the 2018 ceremony to look beyond old marketing rivalries, exclusivity deals, and platform competition and praise gaming as a medium that transcends studio borders and corporate branding. Two of them are now retired and only Spencer remains at his post, currently overseeing the implementation of a similar philosophy as Microsoft goes multiplatform. – Ethan Gach
DrDisrespect wins the Trending Gamer award – The Game Awards 2017
Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm was crowned the biggest gamer of 2017 back when the Game Awards and the traditional gaming industry was still much more intertwined with the growing creator economy on YouTube and Twitch. Little did we all know that this was the same year in which Beahm would later admit to having had “casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate” with a female minor. He was later banned from Twitch over it, even though the full incident wouldn’t come to light until 2024. Presciently, the Game Awards never did another Trending Gamer prize again. – Ethan Gach
Ken & Roberta Williams win the first Industry Icons Award – The Game Awards 2014
The very first Game Awards in 2014 was an overly long and very boring show. But even I had to smile when Ken and Roberta Williams, two very important video game pioneers, were given the Industry Icon award. This show should have tons of these kinds of moments; alas, these segments that truly celebrate creators and games are still far too rare. – Zack Zwiezen
Ninja showing up – The Game Awards 2018
In an attempt to professionalize the category, the Game Awards shifted from 2017’s Trending Gamer to “Content Creator of the Year.” While Richard “Ninja” Blevins would go on to win it in 2018, he also just appeared during the show at the height of his electric-blue-haired popularity for a bit with a Muppet that may have been one of the least funny bits to ever appear during the show’s decade-plus run. Ninja may have had the charisma of a plastic “forkknife” but the writers did him no favors here. – Ethan Gach
Flute Guy – The Game Awards 2022
Live concerts have always been a staple of the Game Awards, but they’ve gotten much better with the move away from Rock Band-like cameos and toward orchestral arrangements of actual video game music. No one embodies that more than Venezuelan flautist Pedro Eustache, who became a viral sensation for his passionate and expressive performances across a variety of different instruments at the 2022 show, especially during the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 segment. He’s so good they keep bringing him back. – Ethan Gach
Rock Band VR announcement trailer – The Game Awards 2015
I’m not sure why Rock Band VR was even created or why it was given such a lengthy spotlight at the Game Awards. And perhaps the worst part is that if you watched the show live or were there in person, you had to look at Palmer Luckey’s feet. The VR wunderkind is now a right-wing AI weapons dealer, and it makes this already hard-to-watch segment even more unbearable. – Zack Zwiezen
Waldorf and Statler dunk on the event – The Game Awards 2024
Yes, it’s a bit odd how often Geoff invites Muppets to the Game Awards. But whatever, I don’t care because it means Statler and Waldorf got to occasionally appear and make fun of the show, Geoff, and everything else. It was wonderful. Truly inspired. – Zack Zwiezen
Schick Hyrdobot takes it to the next level – The Game Awards 2016
The early days of the Game Awards are filled with some truly bizarre sponsorship moments and deals. Geoff needed help funding this thing and seemed willing to take any deal he was offered. That is likely how we ended up with Schick Hyrdobot, a horrific razor-robot-man hybrid that appeared periodically throughout the 2016 event. – Zack Zwiezen
Fans boo Konami – The Game Awards 2015
Number one Keighley best friend Hideo Kojima was not allowed to attend the 2015 show. In an uncharacteristically candid segment, Geoff outlined that Konami’s lawyers were specifically prohibiting the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain director from attending despite the game being nominated. “It’s unfathomable to me,” the host said. As the audience booed the publisher, the show commemorated the absence with a special performance of “Quiet Steam” from the game. – Ethan Gach
Cutting the GOTY speech short – The Game Awards 2023
Larian Studios took home the top prize for Baldur’s Gate 3 at the 2023 show but director Swen Vincke only had 60 seconds to speedrun through the team’s acceptance speech. Things were made even worse by a “wrap it up” sign that happened to flash right when he was mentioning the colleagues that had been lost along the way during development. Fortunately, the studio head shared his full speech online after the show, and went on to have one of the best monologues at the following year’s show, in which he predicted Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 potentially sweeping this year’s awards. – Ethan Gach
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime remembers Iwata – The Game Awards 2015
As mentioned already, it’s rare that the Game Awards takes a moment to truly slow down and let someone be human. That makes this moment in 2015 when Geoff and then-Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé eulogized and honored the recently passed Satuoru Iwata, all the more special. Geoff literally says that for the next few minutes he’s putting away the trailers, the awards, and the marketing, and seems truly affected by Iwata’s death. Turns out you don’t need big flashy trailers to create a memorable moment. Just some heart. – Zack Zwiezen
Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel end the show awkwardly – The Game Awards 2019
I think the 2019 Game Awards have the worst and strangest ending in the show’s history. It starts with Michelle Rodriguez revealing the last game of the show, a crappy Fast and Furious game that looked terrible, and evolves into an awkward back-and-forth between her and Vin Diesel about the next F&F movie and video games. It’s rough stuff. Worse, the two were then involved in handing out the final award of the night to the Game of the Year winner. Yikes! – Zack Zwiezen
Christopher Judge wins and gives a nine-minute speech – The Game Awards 2022
There’s no God of War reboot without Christopher Judge, and the Stargate veteran went on to win “Best Performance” for Ragnarök in 2022. He gave what must be the longest speech in Game Awards history. It was personal, emotional, and so drawn out that Keighley spent the next few years rushing winners off the stage after 30 seconds to stop the show from going too late into the night. But he earned it after punctuating the 2018 show with the best three words anyone spoke onstage that night: “Read it, boy.” – Ethan Gach
Bill Clinton kid crashes the stage – The Game Awards 2022
Small-time online troll Matan Even snuck on stage at the end of the 2022 ceremony when Elden Ring was crowned Game of the Year. It was confusing and absurd. “I want to nominate this award to my reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton,” he said after speeches from the actual developers. The incident’s legacy as the most “this thing is happening live” moment in TGA history was only trumped by just how dumb it turned out to be. Keighley has tightened security in the years since. – Ethan Gach
Alan Wake 2 dance – The Game Awards 2023
Recreating the best moment from Alan Wake 2, one of the best games of 2023, live on stage was such a brilliant and fun idea that I almost believe Geoff wasn’t involved in that meeting. However this came about, I don’t care, because the end result is arguably the most joyful moment in the history of the Game Awards. More of this and honoring creators, and less random celebrities and bad jokes, please! – Zack Zwiezen
