As 2020 settles into place in the rearview mirror (thank goodness), game outlets are posting their Game of the Year lists left and right. Topping many of those lists are PlayStation exclusives, including Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us Part II. According to GOTYPicks, a blog dedicated to adding the number of victories in the Game of the year, Sony exclusives have led the way in terms of wins for the past three years.
This year’s Game of the Year according to the blog is The Last of Us Part II with 141 wins at the time of writing. Additionally, Ghost of Tsushima scored 21 wins and Final Fantasy VII Remake scored 13. The win total for Sony Exclusives in 2020 is 177 if you include the wins for Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Persona 5: Royal as well. While this number sounds like a lot, it makes sense when you look at the year’s releases.
In 2020, PlayStation had more blockbuster console exclusives than Xbox and Switch. This is not to say that neither of the two non-Sony consoles had bad years in terms of games, but none of the big Xbox exclusive franchises ended up launching this year and while Nintendo had a good year thanks in large part to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, couldn’t compete with the sheer number of PlayStation exclusives.
When looking at numbers like this, it is important to remember their context. Because Sony released more exclusives this year, they ended up with more awards. However, since the Big Three in-house publishers tend to publish quality games, it is often assumed that whoever releases the most in a given year receives the most awards.