Voting for the 2025 Steam Awards opened December 18 alongside the Winter Sale, giving players until January 3, 2026 to choose winners across 11 categories that celebrate the best PC gaming has to offer. Unlike The Game Awards which relies heavily on industry judges with minimal fan input, the Steam Awards are 100 percent community-driven, meaning your vote genuinely determines which games get recognized. Finalists in each category were selected from November’s nomination period where millions of Steam users submitted their favorites, and now the real competition begins to see which games the PC gaming community considers truly exceptional.
The 11 Categories That Actually Make Sense
The Steam Awards feature 11 distinct categories that range from traditional to wonderfully weird. Game of the Year represents the big one, asking players to select the single best game released on Steam between last year’s Autumn Sale and this year’s nominations. VR Game of the Year specifically recognizes virtual reality experiences, acknowledging that VR gaming remains a distinct enough category to warrant separate recognition rather than competing with traditional releases.
Labor of Love stands as the most interesting category because it rewards developers who continue supporting older games with meaningful updates years after launch. Unlike other categories requiring releases within the past year, Labor of Love nominations can include any game on Steam regardless of original launch date, as long as it received substantial post-release support. This category consistently generates discussion because it includes both live service games and passion project indies that refuse to die.
Best Game on Steam Deck acknowledges Valve’s portable PC gaming device and recognizes titles that excel on handheld hardware. Outstanding Visual Style celebrates artistic direction over raw graphical horsepower, typically favoring unique aesthetics from indie developers over photorealistic AAA productions. Most Innovative Gameplay rewards creative mechanics that push boundaries, while Best Game You Suck At hilariously recognizes punishingly difficult games players love despite constantly dying.
Best Soundtrack honors games with exceptional music, Outstanding Story-Rich Game highlights narrative achievements, and Sit Back and Relax celebrates the most chill gaming experiences. Finally, Best Multiplayer recognizes online experiences that bring players together, whether competitive or cooperative. Each category includes five finalists selected from November’s community nominations, ensuring the voting field represents what Steam users actually care about rather than what critics or industry insiders think deserves recognition.
Why Community Voting Actually Matters
The fundamental difference between Steam Awards and traditional gaming awards ceremonies is who decides winners. The Game Awards, Golden Joystick Awards, and publication-specific GOTY lists rely primarily on industry professionals, critics, and media outlets to select winners, with fan votes contributing minimal influence. This structure creates disconnects where games critics love get recognized despite limited player engagement, or vice versa where massively popular titles get snubbed because they don’t fit critical preferences.
Steam Awards flip that model entirely. The community nominates finalists during November, and the community votes on winners during December’s Winter Sale. Valve doesn’t curate nominees based on critical reception, commercial success, or any other metric beyond what Steam users actually want to recognize. This democratic approach sometimes produces controversial results that make gaming media clutch pearls, but it accurately represents what millions of actual players think rather than what dozens of critics believe players should think.
Last year’s 2024 Steam Awards saw Black Myth: Wukong win Game of the Year despite mixed critical reception compared to universally acclaimed titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. Liar’s Bar won Most Innovative Gameplay over established franchises. Farming Simulator 25 took Sit Back and Relax. These results reflect what actual Steam users played and enjoyed, not what gaming publications wanted recognized. Whether you agree with community choices or find them baffling, they represent authentic player sentiment rather than curated industry narratives.
The Controversial Nominations That Always Happen
Community-driven voting inevitably produces nominations that make people question whether participants take the process seriously. Every year, some users nominate games ironically, creating situations where titles clearly unfit for specific categories somehow make the finalist list. Starfield getting nominated for Most Innovative Gameplay in 2024 became a meme because the game was criticized for being extremely traditional and derivative rather than innovative, suggesting trolling or misunderstanding influenced nominations.
These controversial picks spark debates about whether community voting represents genuine opinions or just trolling exercises. Some argue that ironic nominations delegitimize the entire process and insult developers who created genuinely innovative work. Others counter that gaming is supposed to be fun, and if the community wants to mess around with award nominations, that’s part of what makes Steam Awards distinct from stuffy industry ceremonies where everything is curated and sanitized.
The nomination period for 2025 ran from November 23 through December 1, giving users just over a week to submit their choices. Steam’s interface suggested games you’ve played during 2025 for each category while also listing popular and recommended titles if you wanted to vote for the winning team rather than personal favorites. This dual approach lets passionate players nominate niche games they genuinely loved while casual voters can pick from recognizable titles they’ve heard about, creating a mix of genuine enthusiasm and popularity contest dynamics.
How to Vote and Earn Rewards
Voting for the 2025 Steam Awards requires just opening Steam during the Winter Sale and navigating to the Awards section featured on the front page. Each category displays five finalists with brief descriptions, and you simply click your preferred choice. You can vote in as many or as few categories as you want, though voting in all 11 earns you the complete set of Steam Awards stickers for your profile.
These stickers serve as cosmetic profile decorations with no gameplay impact, but they do represent participation in the community event. Completing the Discovery Queue during the sale earns additional Winter Sale stickers, creating incentive structures that encourage browsing Steam’s catalog and engaging with the sale beyond just buying discounted games. Some users collect these seasonal badges obsessively, while others ignore them entirely, but Valve includes them as low-effort participation rewards.
Voting remains open through the entire Winter Sale, closing when the sale ends January 5, 2026 at 10 AM Pacific Time. This extended voting period means you don’t need to rush decisions or vote immediately when the sale launches. You can research nominees, watch gameplay videos, read reviews, and make informed choices rather than snap judgments based on name recognition. Winners get announced January 3 at 10 AM Pacific, two days before the sale ends, giving Valve time to tally votes and prepare winner announcements.
The Labor of Love Category Controversy
Labor of Love consistently generates the most passionate debates because it recognizes ongoing post-launch support rather than initial release quality. Games that launched years ago but receive consistent updates, DLC, patches, and community engagement compete for recognition, creating battles between massive live service titles with unlimited budgets versus small indie projects maintained by passionate developers working for free.
Last year, Elden Ring won Labor of Love after releasing the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, prompting complaints that FromSoftware simply released paid DLC rather than providing free ongoing support that the award theoretically recognizes. Stardew Valley, Baldur’s Gate 3, Dota 2, and No Man’s Sky also made the 2024 finalist list, representing everything from solo developer passion projects to massive multiplayer games backed by corporations.
For 2025, games lobbying for Labor of Love nominations include Spirit Island, Dying Light, The Outlast Trials, and countless other titles receiving years of post-launch support. The category highlights which developers truly care about their games beyond initial sales, whether through free content updates, quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, or meaningful expansions. However, debates rage about whether paid DLC counts as labor of love versus exploitation, and whether billion-dollar companies should compete against indie developers for recognition in this category.
Comparing to The Game Awards Results
The Game Awards 2025 concluded December 11, just one week before Steam Awards voting opened, providing immediate comparison between critic-driven and community-driven recognition. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept The Game Awards with nine wins including Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, and Best Art Direction, establishing it as critics’ consensus pick for 2025’s best game despite not launching until early 2026.
Whether Steam Awards voters agree with The Game Awards’ Clair Obscur love fest remains to be seen when winners get announced January 3. Historically, Steam Awards and The Game Awards rarely align completely on Game of the Year winners, reflecting genuine differences between critic preferences and player preferences. Critics evaluate games on artistic merit, innovation, cultural impact, and technical achievement. Players vote for games they actually enjoyed playing regardless of whether they broke new ground or advanced the medium.
This philosophical difference creates situations where critically acclaimed darlings lose Steam Awards to commercially successful titles dismissed by critics as derivative or uninnovative. Whether you prefer critic-driven curation or community-driven democracy depends on whether you trust professional evaluators to identify quality or believe the wisdom of crowds better reflects gaming value. Both approaches have merits and flaws, and both inevitably produce controversial results that spark debates about what truly deserves recognition.
FAQs
When does Steam Awards 2025 voting end?
Voting for the 2025 Steam Awards closes January 5, 2026 at 10 AM Pacific Time when the Winter Sale ends. Winners will be announced two days earlier on January 3 at 10 AM Pacific, giving Valve time to tally votes and prepare announcements.
How do I vote in the Steam Awards?
Open Steam during the Winter Sale and navigate to the Steam Awards section featured on the front page. Each category displays five finalists, and you simply click your preferred choice. Voting in all 11 categories earns you Steam Awards stickers for your profile.
What are the Steam Awards 2025 categories?
The 11 categories are: Game of the Year, VR Game of the Year, Labor of Love, Best Game on Steam Deck, Outstanding Visual Style, Most Innovative Gameplay, Best Game You Suck At, Best Soundtrack, Best Multiplayer, Outstanding Story-Rich Game, and Sit Back and Relax.
Can I nominate games for Steam Awards 2025?
No, the nomination period closed December 1, 2025. Finalists were announced December 18 when voting opened. You can only vote for the five finalists in each category that were selected during November’s nomination period.
What is Labor of Love in Steam Awards?
Labor of Love recognizes games that continue receiving meaningful updates and support years after launch. Unlike other categories requiring recent releases, Labor of Love can include any game on Steam regardless of age, as long as it demonstrates ongoing developer commitment through updates, patches, or content additions.
How are Steam Awards different from The Game Awards?
Steam Awards are 100 percent community-driven where players nominate finalists and vote on winners. The Game Awards rely primarily on industry judges and critics with minimal fan influence. This creates different results reflecting player preferences versus critical consensus.
Do Steam Awards winners get anything?
Winning games receive a Steam Awards badge on their store page highlighting which award they won. This provides marketing value and prestige but no monetary prize. Winners also get featured prominently on Steam’s front page after announcement.
Can I change my Steam Awards vote after submitting?
Yes, you can change your votes any time before voting closes January 5, 2026. Simply navigate back to the Steam Awards section and select different finalists in any category. Your most recent votes count.
Conclusion
The 2025 Steam Awards represent the gaming community’s chance to recognize excellence on their own terms rather than deferring to critics, journalists, or industry insiders. Voting opened December 18 alongside the Winter Sale and continues through January 5, giving players over two weeks to research nominees, consider choices, and cast votes across 11 categories celebrating everything from artistic achievement to games that kicked your ass repeatedly while you loved every second.
What makes Steam Awards special is the complete community control. Valve doesn’t curate finalists based on metacritic scores, sales figures, or critical acclaim. The community nominated finalists during November, and the community decides winners in January. This democratic approach produces results that genuinely reflect what millions of Steam users played and valued throughout 2025, even when those results confuse or frustrate gaming media who expected different outcomes.
Yes, community voting creates opportunities for trolling, ironic nominations, and popularity contests where big-budget blockbusters dominate deserving indies. The same criticisms apply to every democratic system where collective decision-making sometimes produces head-scratching results. But the alternative is curated awards where small groups of critics decide what deserves recognition based on their personal preferences and professional obligations, which also produces controversy when popular games get snubbed.
Categories like Labor of Love, Best Game You Suck At, and Sit Back and Relax showcase Steam Awards’ willingness to celebrate aspects of gaming that traditional ceremonies ignore. Recognizing developers who continue supporting older games years after launch matters. Honoring punishingly difficult games players love despite constant death respects a valid gaming experience. Celebrating chill experiences acknowledges that not every game needs to be epic or intense to provide value.
The comparison between Steam Awards and The Game Awards highlights fundamental differences in how gaming excellence gets defined. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept The Game Awards with nine wins including Game of the Year despite not even launching yet. Whether Steam users agree when they vote on their own Game of the Year winner will reveal if critics accurately identified 2025’s best or if players valued different experiences. Neither answer is inherently correct – they represent different perspectives on what makes games worth celebrating.
Winners announced January 3 will spark inevitable debates about whether the right games won, whether certain categories got hijacked by trolls, and whether community-driven awards can be taken seriously when they sometimes produce meme results. These debates miss the point. Steam Awards don’t exist to create definitive objective rankings of gaming quality. They exist to let the community recognize what they collectively valued during 2025, warts and all.
You have until January 5 to vote. Open Steam, browse the 11 categories, research nominees if you’re uncertain, and pick games you genuinely believe deserve recognition. Your vote carries equal weight whether you’re a hardcore enthusiast who played 500 hours of everything or a casual player who bought three games all year. That democratic simplicity is both the Steam Awards’ greatest strength and most significant vulnerability, and it’s what makes the results interesting regardless of whether you agree with them.