Sonic and Genshin Impact fans are at war over one specific game award

Fans of Sonic Frontiers and Genshin Impact have been battling it out on The Game Awards website trying to secure a win in the Players' Voice category. 

If you've been on Twitter over the last day or so, you may have noticed the term #SonicSweep trending. That'll be fans of the blue blur trying to win an award for the recently released Sonic Frontiers at The Game Awards, which are due to take place on December 8, 2022. 

Sonic Frontiers isn't up for an award in the main section of the awards, but it is up for the Players' Voice award, which is decided solely by the public as their favorite game of 2022. The category is currently in its third round and features games like Elden Ring, Stray, God of War Ragnarok, Genshin Impact, and Sonic Frontiers. Right now (at the time of writing) Genshin Impact is currently in the lead with 52% of the vote, with Sonic Frontiers behind with 32%, followed by Elden Ring with 7%, God of War Ragnarok with 7%, and Stray with 2%. 

This wasn't always the case though. Just yesterday, it appeared that Sonic Frontiers was in the lead, which is why fans have been furiously encouraging each other to vote in the awards to keep it above Genshin Impact. As the results show though, fans of HoYoverse's action-RPG can be just as determined and have so far successfully kept Genshin at the top spot before voting closes on December 8.  

One of the reasons why Sonic fans are so set on Sonic Frontiers winning the Players' Voice award - other than the fact it is their favorite game of 2022 - is because many are claiming that Genshin Impact fans are being bribed for their votes. As reported by Kotaku, many people are convinced that HoYoverse has promised primogems (Genshin Impact's currency) to players if its game wins the award. 

This theory has gained enough momentum that The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley had to address it during a recent Reddit AMA. One user asked the host: "What are you and your team going to do about the obvious vote bribery and botting that is currently occurring in the players' voice award?" To which Keighley replied: "I don't know it's bots - I think it's fan bases activating to support a game, or a game promoting its nomination to its fan base." He did however say that he and his team will be "looking into this now." 

Developer HoYoverse hasn't explicitly stated that it will be rewarding players for its win. However, it isn't a difficult assumption to make considering it did do exactly this after winning Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2021, as well as more recently at the PlayStation Partner Awards 2022. 

Trying to catch up with everything that was released this year? Take a look at our best games 2022 list.