I'm Tired of Horror Always Being Snubbed at The Game Awards

1 week ago 13

Another season of The Game Awards has come and gone, and just like previous years, games in the horror category are overlooked and underappreciated. This year, Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 absolutely swept the awards, taking the trophy in nearly every category. It was a sw33p, if you will.

While I admittedly have never played Expedition 33 to personally attest to its quality, several people I know swear on it being Game of the Year. That being said, there were so many other games across these categories that deserved at least a little sparkle. But I'm not here to talk about Ghost of Yotei or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach being robbed; I'm focused on the trend of everyone once again suddenly forgetting horror games exist.

The Game Awards 2025 Biggest Game Of The Year Snubs

Seriously, what is it with awards seasons and ignoring horror? It's not even exclusive to gaming, either, horror movies are frequently snubbed at The Oscars, with fantastic performances not being nominated because it's for a horror movie. Toni Collette in 2018's Hereditary is a prime example of this.

So cut to this year's Game Awards, where horror games or horror-adjacent games aren't even breathed on, and it just cements the frustration.

Consider Previous Years

There's a Pattern

The Most Realistic Horror Protagonist Is A Terrified One

Grace Ashcroft being terrified of her surroundings doesn't make her weak, it makes her real.

While this year, the main horror game represented was the masterpiece that is Silent Hill f, previous years had seen other games get the same treatment of neglect. You could even say Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was part of these snubs, but that's if you consider Death Stranding to be a horror game rather than being more horror-adjacent.

Last year in 2024, Silent Hill 2 Remake didn't get a single win — which, sure, it's a remake, but losing Best Score and Music to Final Fantasy of all games feels wrong, outright sacrilegious when hearing the fantastic compositions that Akira Yamaoka is known for. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II ended up taking home Best Audio Design and Best Performance, which helps horror be a bit more recognized, but many would argue it's more of a dark action game rather than horror directly.

In 2023, Alan Wake 2 did most of the heavy lifting for horror games, but that was after games like Dredge, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and Dead Space Remake ended up being overlooked entirely. Again, sure, they're remakes, so they're lucky to even be nominated, but what is the point of a nomination if consideration won't even be extended?

If you're like many players who don't consider A Plague Tale: Requiem to be a horror game (rather a stealth action/adventure game with horror-like elements), then you'd notice that 2022 didn't even nominate a single horror game.

2021 saw Resident Evil: Village overlooked apart from Maggie Robertson taking home Best Performance for the infamous Lady Dimitrescu -- but considering how she took the entire internet by storm, how much of it was a genuine vote and how much of it was thirsty fans making sure their favorite villain gets center stage? It's hard not to take virality into account of fan-voting awards, especially for events like The Game Awards.

You can argue The Last of Us: Part II sweeping 2020 was great representation for the horror genre, but again, that's if you even consider The Last of Us to be horror. I, personally, consider it horror-adjacent, as it's way more of a drama than anything else. But even if you consider it horror, the first game lost Game of the Year at the VGX Game Awards to Grand Theft Auto V, a superficial game that has nowhere near the substance that The Last of Us offered players.

This can be traced back to before The Game Awards was even established -- the only recognition any horror game had gotten was in 2012 in the Spike Video Game Awards, when Telltale's The Walking Dead took home Game of the Year, but that was literally it.

And those are just the games that are nominated -- notice how, in the indie sphere, Dredge was the only one that made it to nominations. When you think of all the different horror games that were created and released each year, notice how The Game Awards is only a drop in the bucket (specifically, the AAA bucket) of appreciation.

Suffice to say, there's a pattern of how horror is treated during awards season, and it's not a nice trend. Horror fans are noticing it too, with many players online talking about how their favorite titles were snubbed, with many discussing how rare it is for horror to have a victory at all, much less any recognition.

To Categorize or Not to Categorize?

Fear is Subjective, But Still Adored

Where Are The Christmas Horror Games?

It's the most wonderful time of the year, but there are practically no games, much less horror games, that fit the theme.

First things first, horror doesn't even have its own category at The Game Awards, sparking other organizations to create their own horror-centric award ceremonies so these titles and the teams behind them can get a crumb of appreciation.

Most horror games are dropped into the Action/Adventure category, which is fair, but of course, they're going to be overlooked when sitting next to games that are far more mainstream than horror titles. The same happens with Best Narrative, Best Audio Design and countless other categories that horror is plopped into and forgotten.

I understand why horror doesn't have its own category -- because fear and horror is subjective, after all -- but that doesn't mean that the narratives of these games aren't killer. Seriously, while not everyone can relate to the distinctly feminine fears of Silent Hill f, that doesn't change the fact that it should have won Best Narrative, especially with how it was masterfully crafted and executed. The richness, depth and detail is simply unmatched, but unloved by judges, and that just feels wrong.

Horror is more niche in the industry, many of us know this, and we know this is why there probably won't ever be a category for horror games. But would it really be so difficult for The Game Awards to form a new category? Would it really cause so much trouble if horror was recognized a little more than just for its combat and sound design?

It's one of those decisions that equal parts makes sense but also makes none, and I can't help but wonder if this is something that will change in time, or if we're going to always see horror games tossed into other categories what feels like the last second.

Should horror be given its own category in order to receive appreciation? If that's what it takes, that's what I'll rally behind, but if the judges want to treat horror as a genre hybrids, then these games need to be acknowledged beyond a simple nomination. And, these nominations need to contain more than just the most well-known and most popular, especially with the treasure trove of options in these recent years.

Horror Games Shouldn't Be Overlooked

A Genre Ripe With Quality

Horror Games with Insanely Complicated Lore Silent Hill Resident Evil Five Nights at Freddy's FNAF SOMA

10 Horror Games With Insanely Complicated Lore

Sometimes, it's harder to deal with the story of a game than the scares.

It's gotten to the point to where horror fans expect their favorite games to be snubbed at this point, being genuinely surprised if we get anything at all -- and it shouldn't be like that. We shouldn't expect exemption, we shouldn't anticipate these masterpieces being overlooked just because they focus more on fear factor than gameplay.

The horror genre is full of rich titles that are filled to the brim with quality content around every corner. The experiences that these games offer cannot be easily replicated, especially since horror games offer such a different experience compared to non-horror games in the same category. For example, the atmosphere is taken into account when it's not really paid attention to in a typical open world game. The sound is hyper-focused on in order to bring about the best chills in said atmosphere, yet these games rarely win within the audio category.

Horror games aren't the end-all-be-all, nor are they the only type of game out there. I know this. But more often than not, they're overlooked and not even given an ounce of love come awards season, to where it's just outright upsetting to many of us who were captivated by these games.

Perhaps it's because we went through such a bad drought with genuine horror games, with Action Horror taking center stage, that the awards ceremonies are like this. Perhaps it's because we're finally out of this drought, finally making fantastic horror games, is why I'm so upset over these snubs in the first place. After years of hoping and praying for horror to be good again, it finally is, but we seem to be the only ones that are acknowledging that. We seem to be the only ones reaping the rewards of these games by only getting to play them, with nothing else to show for developers' efforts.

Whatever the reason is behind horror games constantly being overlooked, I don't want to hear it anymore. We shouldn't have to rely on outside awards to see our favorite titles being appreciated, especially since the horror genre as a whole is overflowing with unique and interesting ideas that many other mainstream games won't even touch on.

Seriously, look at Silent Hill f for this year: what other games tackle the fear of marriage and conformity to societal pressures? What other games look to blend beauty with terror, creating a unique experience that's unlike anything I've ever played? Look at the horror games of previous years, and notice how they stand out against other games similarly.

Despite all these absolute bangers coming out in this new decade, I can't help but notice that horror is once again being overlooked. Some day, I hope that will change -- but unfortunately, that day is not today, and we're made to sit in the ruins of what could have been.