The Game Awards 2021 will take place very soon, and we know a few things about Geoff Keighley's pet project already — like the fact it'll be an in-person event, with a musical performance by Sting, and an exciting world premiere that's been in the works for two and a half years.
We've also got the nominations, which include a handful of games on Switch, like Metroid Dread, Death's Door, and even the latest WarioWare.
But if you're wondering how to watch The Game Awards, exactly when it is, or how long it'll run for, we've got you covered.
When is The Game Awards 2021?
The Game Awards will take place on Thursday, December 9th (the 10th for anyone east of the Americas), live from the Microsoft Theater in LA, at 5pm Pacific. Here are the local times in several time zones:
North America (December 9th)
5pm PST
6pm MST
7pm CST
8pm EST
9pm AST
Europe (December 10th)
1am GMT
2am CET
3am EET
Asia & Oceania (December 10th)
6:30am IST
9am CST
9am AWST
10am JST
12pm AEDT
2pm NZDT
Where can I watch The Game Awards 2021?
The Game Awards will be streamed on YouTube and Twitch, both of which can be used natively on the Switch now, if you fancy.
How long will The Game Awards 2021 be?
The runtime hasn't been confirmed yet, but with the pre-show (which is worth watching, they sometimes announce some awards before the show) it'll likely be a few hours. The Game Awards 2020 was three hours long, as an example. It'll be a tough late-night watch for those of you in Europe!
Which games have been nominated for The Game Awards 2021?
You can check out the list here for the full nominees.
But specifically for the Switch and Nintendo, the following games are nominated:
- Metroid Dread (GOTY & Best Action/Adventure)
- Knockout City (Best Multiplayer)
- Monster Hunter Rise (Best Multiplayer & Best RPG)
- Life Is Strange: True Colors (Best Narrative & Games For Impact)
- Boyfriend Dungeon (Games For Impact)
- No Longer Home (Games For Impact)
- Fortnite (Best Ongoing & Best Community Support)
- Apex Legends (Best Ongoing & Best Community Support)
- Melty Blood: Type Lumina (Best Fighting)
- Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Best Fighting)
- FIFA 22 (Best Sports/Racing)
- Hot Wheels Unleashed (Best Sports/Racing)
- The Forgotten City (Best Debut Indie)
- Death's Door (Best Indie)
- Loop Hero (Best Indie)
- Pokémon Unite (Best Mobile)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 (Most Anticipated)
- Mario Party Superstars (Best Family)
- New Pokémon Snap (Best Family)
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Best Family)
- WarioWare: Get It Together! (Best Family)
- Shin Megami Tensei V (Best RPG)
Which games will be shown or announced at The Game Awards 2021?
How sweet that you think we'd have any idea! Keighley and pals — and he does seem to consider some of the industry's biggest names his friends — have things under wraps for now. We've heard rumours, of course: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, which is nominated for "Most Anticipated Game", and maybe we'll hear more about upcoming games like Bayonetta 3, too.
How does voting work for The Game Awards?
Update: Voting is now closed!
Don't forget to vote for your favourites in each category! The final winners will be decided by a "blended vote": 90% determined by the voting jury, and 10% determined by public fan voting.
Voting closes on Wednesday, December 8th at 6pm PST. You can check out the jury here — it is largely made up of outlets like The Guardian, Eurogamer, and so on, but as The Game Awards' FAQ says, "a ballot submitted to The Game Awards represents the collective opinion of an entire outlet."
Will you be watching The Game Awards? Is it at a ridiculous time where you are? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 73
Metriod dread come on please win
Wishing for Shin megami Tensei V to win
I hope Psychonauts 2 gets some love!!
It truly deserves it
We’re not seeing BOTW2 are we 😕
"2am CET"
Yeah I'm not going to watch that lol
Ain't staying up til 5am or something to watch a show that is 75% adveritisements
Where? An internet browser, from my couch.
Oh, who am I fooling, I'm not watching this cringe-fest.
@Mattock1987 We can hope. 👍🏽
Looks like I'll be at work when this is going live but that's alright. I always look forward to the discussion that happens afterwards lol.
"The final winners will be decided by a "blended vote": 90% determined by the voting jury, and 10% determined by public fan voting."
That certainly explains a lot.
FIFA 22 best sports ? Don't make me laugh.
For some reason I keep thinking this is on tomorrow Thursday December 2nd, not the 9th, I guess b/c of all the coverage lately. This article definitely made me think it was on this week. 😂
I'll be watching, depending on who's playing in the NFL game. Pitt- Vikings, I can skip it.
@mariomaster96
That's the best time, cause then I can log in and read the announcements at 9 am
Locked and loaded, and my beer fridge will be stocked.
Anyone who thinks that Nintendo is going to do their full reveal of botw2 at the game awards is only fooling themselves, just pray that it doesn't get delayed into 2023
@Meteoroid While I don't disagree, I do think they should lend a little more weight to fan votes; that 90%/10% ratio seems too unbalanced for my liking. I don't put much stock in awards shows either, but IMO some of the various category winners last year were baffling to say the least.
It's a shame, because in previous years I quite enjoyed the hype and game news that came out of the TGAs. 2020's show, however, wasn't worth my time. To be fair, this might've been partially due to the pandemic, but I came away pretty underwhelmed. I may tune in via YT on my television, but I doubt I'll give the show my full attention.
@Classic603 Yeah the problem is that I really love to see announcements live (especially ones that excite me obviously) instead of just reading a news about it online
@Darkyoshi98 we can only hope
@Tyranexx Always been the case, always been known
@mariomaster96
To each their own! I personally just want a bullet list of things announced, with trailers as links. That way I can browse what I care about and ignore the rest. This mostly pertains to E3
@Hinade Previously I didn't know the exact ratio (or forgot), but I do know this is pretty common practice with entertainment-related awards. While I do agree that the voting jury deserves some clout, I also think the consumers of a medium - in this case, gamers - deserve more representation. Perhaps not the majority, but 10% seems like a paltry amount.
@Deepdoop i expect information regarding Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 to be at E3 2022.
At this point they should entirely do away with the pretense of an awards show and make it a "second E3", so to speak.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love a big "legitimate" awards show akin to the Oscars for gaming, and think that at least in terms of aesthetic the Game Awards gets it right (I do think the statues look appropriately classy), and I think it hit close enough to that mark the first couple years, but when you're spending so much time on trailers that most of the awards are announced in throwaway "oh, btw" segments, it's clear that's not even remotely the focus of the show anymore.
i don't expect anything for Nintendo at the 2021 Game Awards, the focus will be for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 games.
Can't wait because the Nintendo Life chat is always fun during these streams even if the stream itself ends up boring.
@Mattock1987 no,expect Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 at E3 2022.
Finally something I don’t have to stay up to 2am to watch in Australia!!
It will definitely be interesting to see what happens this year…
Come on please have something for cuphead!
No one is expecting anything, what Nintendo drop a massive surprise, like metroid prime 4 or f zero, I bet they may surprise us all.
C'mon, why that early? And on a thursday too...
All i care for is the reveals what i shell watch after its finished.
@BloodNinja Couldnt have put it better myself! I'll skip through it or wait for a summary somewhere.
@HollowSpectre Yeah, I tried watching it here and there but man, whoever directs or governs the show or whatever needs some better direction.
@BloodNinja Yeah cut out all the fluff in between the awards and announcements and you could have a hour and a half tops. Or cut out the awards while their at it.
Just a reminder: it’s never been worth it to watch the game awards just to see the Nintendo stuff.. don’t do it lol
'It'll be a tough late-night watch for those of you in Europe!'
Exactly why I'll be in bed and catch the news in the morning.
@rjejr
Yeah I was thinking it was tomorow too and was like I gotta watch the cowboys game though. Glad its next Thursday cause I don't care bout that game as much, still hope the Vikings win though.
Why does the youtube link take me to twitch? Happen to anyone else?
@Tyranexx
Yeah I was thought that was dumb unless the public unanimously votes for one thing it amounts to what might as well be nothing.
Even though there are a lot of advertisements and stuff I generally don't care about in TGA, I think I'll watch it this year. The fact that Dread was nominated for GOTY and also that BOTW 2, Prime 4, and the Mario Movie have a chance of showing up gives me a good reason to tune in. I'm not strictly interested in Nintendo stuff, though. What Keighley has teased about the show so far has gotten me interested.
@HollowSpectre lmfao, just cut the awards, save all that bandwidth!
Hollow Knight Silksong anyone?
I'll read the results on Friday. No way I'm staying up until 3am just to watch BotW2 ultimately not feature!
If there is a Nintendo announcement, waiting until Friday is not going to make any difference to me!
@zapswitch I'm fine with there still being a jury panel with some say, but I'd think lending only 10% of the vote to fans wouldn't have much of an impact unless the vote for a game is nearly unanimous.
@Tyranexx
Im thinking around 30% would be good
@zapswitch 30% would definitely be more reasonable! Also fixed my typo up there. Darn autocorrect lol.
@zapswitch "Yeah I was thinking it was tomorow too"
They have been hyping it a lot lately, that's for sure.
I'm watching the Super butter buns stream via Twitch, laughed so much last year, can't wait for the chaos! (God last year was awfull, but that made the stream so much better! 😂)
The whole thing sounds kind of cringe, especially going by the last few years. Wonder how Kojima is going to worm his way in this time?
Honestly Geoff should just cut the losses and turn it in to a series of presentations like E3. There's little prestige in the awards, and Geoff himself has pivoted heavily towards hyping announcements to draw in viewers.
I unironically hold IGNs GOTY award in higher regard than this schlock.
@BloodNinja well you thought gamesmaster was a no go ,so I'm not sure what to expect 😄
Not wasting my time this year with watching. I'll just check the news sites next day.
@Matty1988 you couldnt be further from the truth
The YouTube link for the broadcast is wrong, takes you to the GA twitch channel
I hope these leakers are wrong and they show metriod prime 4 instead of botw2
This airs after my bedtime, I'll catch the news tomorrow morning on my way to work.
I will gladly look up the reveals instead of wasting time like last year
Deathloop ftw!
The question I'm fighting with is whether I need sleep tonight or not
But then again, I guess that basic needs are kinda overrated
BOTW 2 would be cool but I feel that will be more E3 2022. For a new announcement it would be cool to see a new Fire Emblem or remake/remaster announced.
This year is Fire Emblems 30th anniversary and nothing so far.
Also when there was Wii U and DS they were releasing FE games so fast (I think it was every 2 years), now that we have the Switch only they slowed down the release schedule a lot (I'm sure COVID had something to do with this also and there have been spin offs).
I know this will not happen and the mystery release will be either nothing from Nintendo, but interesting to think about what Nintendo would release next,
@danemord I mean, Keighley has said that there are 4 or 5 reveals on the scale of Elden Ring, so I don't think it's gonna be entirely a snoozefest. I guess it depends on if you're interested in more than just Nintendo stuff, though.
I'll get a summary of the highlights to go with my breakfast tomorrow. <3
Pokemon snap a non-multiplayer game, best family game, yes.
@Tyranexx 10%?!? I hadn't noticed that!
Europe: "fu*k my drag right?"
Their map of time zones shows half hour sooner times, so there probably will be half hour or so pre-show like always.
Remember, everybody; don't get hyped for tripe.
@Kieroni Right?! Makes me wonder why they bother with a popular vote at all outside of a category dedicated to it.
I'm only here for the cringe and a couple cool reveals. Getting a little tipsy and making fun of the Game Awards has slowly become a new holiday ritual for me.
In the immortal words of Josef Fares during the 2017 Game Awards: "F@#% the Oscars!!"
I'm playing through Metroid Dread at the moment and so far its a excellent game. I hope it wins at least one of its nominations. 1am is a little late for me if it was on earlier then i would've put it on in the background and watch it but i like sleep. So I'll check out the results and any announcements in the morning.
Usual overlong cringe fest, with a large dose of politics thrown in for good measure, don't know why I bother, I love movies but never ever watch the Oscars, guess I was holding out for the big reveal game being Zelda.
What was the BIG 2.5 year game that was rumoured to be Zelda?
Can someone tell me what if anything was announced for Switch beyond Sonic?
@Tyranexx Higher user engagement so more people tune in to watch the ads? ¯(ツ)/¯
@Kieroni Certainly a plausible theory! XD
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