List of Winning Games
The unveiling took place during a live event, underscoring the industry’s notable progress. The total prize pool for the victorious games surpassed $2 million, comprising both cash prizes and in-kind support, such as cash grants, tech service credits, marketing assistance, sponsored tournaments, infrastructure support, and cloud gaming functionalities. This extensive support system reflects the commitment to fostering innovation and excellence within the Web3 gaming sphere.
Community engagement played a pivotal role in determining the award recipients, with an impressive participation of over 450,000 votes from more than 50,000 distinct voters. Each game and content creator emerged triumphant in their respective categories, distinguishing themselves amidst a competitive field. Having served as one of the judges for the contest, I observed a marked improvement in the overall quality compared to my experiences with previous assessments.
The awards spanned diverse categories, showcasing the industry’s breadth and depth:
- Game of the Year: “Parallel”
- Most Anticipated Game: “Shrapnel”
- Best Graphics: “Shrapnel”
- Best Action Game: “My Pet Hooligan”
- Best Mobile Game: “Mighty Action Heroes”
- Best Adventure Game: “Big Time”
- Best Casual Game: “Pixels”
- Best RPG: “Big Time”
- Best Shooter Game: “Deadrop”
- Best Strategy Game: “Parallel”
- Best Card Game: “Parallel”
- Best Multiplayer Game: “Big Time”
- Best Esports Game: “Deadrop”
- Best Content Creator: Sam Steffanina
- Best On-Chain Game: “Pirate Nation”
- Best Fighting Game: “Champions Ascension”
- Best Racing / Sports Game: “NFL Rivals”
- People’s Choice Award: “Star Atlas”
- Games’ Choice Award: “Wildcard”
Rewards for Winning Games
The extensive prize pool for the GAM3 Award 2023, exceeding $2 million, is a result of collaboration with a diverse array of partners, including industry giants such as Amazon, Magic Eden, AD Gaming, BNB Chain, Immutable, Ultra, Blockchain Gaming Alliance, Naavik, Aethir, and Sequence, among others. This collective support underscores the commitment of these entities to fueling innovation and excellence within the Web3 gaming realm.
The determination of winners was a meticulous process, combining input from both a distinguished jury and the gaming community. The jury’s votes held substantial weight, contributing to 90% of the decision-making, while the remaining 10% was influenced by community votes. Notably, the People’s Choice and Best Content Creator categories stood out as exceptions, relying solely on 100% community voting.
The journey to crown the winners began with 214 nominated games facing scrutiny from over 70 jury members. Criteria such as gameplay, mechanics, replayability potential, the elusive “fun” factor, accessibility, and overall quality led to the shortlisting of 40 games. The subsequent phase, featuring community voting from November 22 to December 7, witnessed extensive engagement facilitated by thousands of social posts across various platforms, generating a staggering 35 million impressions.
In a display of dominance, Parallel and Big Time both clinched three awards each, tying for the most accolades. Parallel secured the coveted title of Game of the Year. Additionally, Deadrop and Shrapnel each earned two awards, with Shrapnel achieving the distinction of being the “Most Anticipated Game” for the second consecutive year.
The diversity of the winners’ circle extended to the gaming ecosystems, with four games built on Polygon, two on Ethereum L1, and an equal distribution across Immutable, Ronin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Solana, and EOS, each contributing one title.
The GAM3 Awards 2023 ceremony, held on December 14, attracted a substantial audience, peaking at 36,000 concurrent viewers and maintaining an average of 12,200 viewers throughout the entire show on Twitch alone. The event garnered over 50,000 live viewers across all streaming platforms, accumulating more than 250,000 views within the first 24 hours.
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Viewers were treated to exclusive premieres and trailers from a lineup of notable games, including Star Atlas, Blocklords, Infinite Victory, Wilder World, Thetan Rivals, Apeiron, Xociety, Forgotten Playland’s official reveal, Aether Games’ Saga CGI series teaser, and a first-ever glimpse of Ultra’s exclusive title, Project Citadel. These unveilings collectively underscore the promising trajectory of Web3 gaming as the community looks ahead to 2024. Gam3 has announced plans for the event’s return next December, marking its third consecutive edition.
