Records are made to be broken, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is getting close to beating yet another one. Sandfall's JRPG-inspired game just overtook The Last of Us Part 2 for garnering the most game of the year awards, leaving only Elden Ring in its way.
A poster on ResetEra is doing the math. So far, Clair Obscur has been chosen as the Game of the Year by a media outlet of some description an obscene 404 times. This is 370 more than the runner-up, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and 379 more than bronze medalist Hollow Knight: Silksong.
This means Expedition 33 has overtaken The Last of Us Part 2 by just under 90 GotY distinctions, placing it second in the forum's all-time rankings. 31 more and it'll tie Elden Ring's 435 in first place, but how plausible that is now that we're mid-January is anyone's guess.
Those are serious numbers regardless, remarkable even. There are criteria for qualification in ResetEra's leaderboard here, including but not limited to: outlets must be multi-platform and have a wide remit; have to be active for at least a year, with regular coverage; and must be operated by and have a selection process deliberated on by more than one person.
Yes, that excludes some amount of respectable outlets, but there needs to be a line somewhere, and going by these numbers, it's unlikely the stats have been skewed too strongly. Lots of players just loved Clair Obscur. After this and sweeping The Game Awards, even GTA 6 may struggle to beat it. No matter what happens, we’re the true winners here.
