Lethal Company could win Steam’s biggest award just months after breakout release

Steam’s nominees for Game of the Year have been announced, with Lethal Company among them, giving the game a chance to reach the top only two months after release. The viral sensation faces off against Baldur’s Gate 3, which already swept through The Game Awards with five wins.

Steam announced the nominees for all award categories on Dec. 15, six days ahead of voting. The vote begins on Dec. 21 alongside the Steam Winter Sale. Steam has chosen Lethal Company, Baldur’s Gate 3, EA Sports FC 24, Hogwarts Legacy, and Resident Evil 4 Remake for their prestigious Game of the Year award. The five are all highly popular titles, though some more than others, as Lethal Company and BG3 are favorites for winning the award. In December, BG3 scored five wins, including the Game of the Year Award at the 2023 Game Awards ceremony. The game has been dominant since its release in August, but the unexpectedly popular horror co-op could pull a major upset over the RPG.

Lethal Company has been at the top of Steam’s best-selling list for months, peaking at nearly 250,000 concurrent players, according to SteamCharts. The game has over 150,000 reviews, which may indicate, according to SteamDB’s calculations, that the game has sold over four million copies—a staggering number considering it was developed by a single person and had no substantial marketing campaign prior to release. Though dwarfed in pure numbers by Baldur’s Gate 3, it has become something of a fan favorite. Steam’s awards are purely based on the players’ choice, and if everyone were to rally behind the indie hit, it doesn’t seem unlikely that it could take home Steam’s top Award.

Lethal Company was also nominated for the Better with Friends Award, where it is facing off with Sons of the Forest and Darktide. If you were to ask me, the game has much better chances to score a hit in this category rather than the former, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were to take both of them in one fell swoop. It has become a household name, with countless content creators across all platforms giving the game their unwavering attention, and deservedly so. The simple yet effective gameplay and meme potential give Lethal Company all it needs to have: Fun, and that’s what games are all about.