BAFTA usually goes a different way than The Game Awards, but not this time

Astro Bot won five awards, including Best Game, at Tuesday’s BAFTA Games Awards, wrapping up a triumphant awards season for Sony’s PlayStation 5 platformer.

Dominating the night, Team Asobi’s game also took home awards for Game Design, Animation, Audio, and Family. The Chinese Room’s oil-rig thriller Still Wakes the Deep won three awards, for New Intellectual Property and in both leading and supporting performer categories. Helldivers 2 won for Multiplayer and Music.

Indie card game Balatro won the Debut Game category. With its solo developer LocalThunk maintaining his anonymity, the award was accepted by actor Ben Starr (Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy 16) in his guise as the scary human incarnation of Balatro’s iconic Joker, Jimbo.

Anarchic comedy Thank Goodness You’re Here! won BAFTA’s British Game category. Senua’s Saga: Hellbade 2, which had led the field with 11 nominations, had to make do with just one award, for Technical Achievement.

The recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship was trailblazing composer Yoko Shimomura, known for her music for Street Fighter 2, the Kingdom Hearts series, and many others. Shimomura joins a list of Fellows that includes Hideo Kojima, Gabe Newell, and Shigeru Miyamoto.

The U.K.’s BAFTAs are the final major gaming awards ceremony in the yearly cycle, and the last to recognize the best games of 2024. Astro Bot’s Best Game victory means it took the top honor at three of the four most significant ceremonies — BAFTA, the DICE Awards, and The Game Awards back in December. The Game Developers Choice Awards’ choice for Game of the Year was Balatro, which was probably Astro Bot’s strongest competition through the whole season.

The only surprising thing about Astro Bot’s BAFTA triumph is that the British screen arts academy tends to settle on a different GOTY pick than The Game Awards. In the last 10 years, BAFTA’s complex, multi-stage voting process has returned left-field Best Game winners like Vampire Survivors and Outer Wilds, and has only chosen the same game as The Game Awards twice. Make that three times, now.

Here’s the full list of BAFTA Games Awards winners:

Best Game: Astro BotAnimation: Astro BotArtistic Achievement: NevaAudio Achievement: Astro BotBritish Game: *Thank Goodness You’re Here!*Debut Game: BalatroEvolving Game: Vampire SurvivorsFamily: Astro BotGame Beyond Entertainment: Tales of Kenzera: ZauGame Design: Astro BotMultiplayer: Helldivers 2Music: Helldivers 2Narrative: Metaphor: ReFantazioNew Intellectual Property: Still Wakes the DeepPerformer in a Leading Role: Alec Newman, Still Wakes the DeepPerformer in a Supporting Role: Karen Dunbar, Still Wakes the DeepTechnical Achievement: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

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