After a massively successful launch period, one of the most acclaimed games of last year has picked up another award to add to its collection.
Overwatch picked up the Game of the Year gong at the Game Developers Choice Awards last night at the conclusion of the annual Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, California.
Overwatch also picked up the award for best design and was nominated for visual art, technology and audio categories.
The award is the eleventh Game of the Year title for Overwatch, including the title at The Game Awards and the D.I.C.E Awards. It’s the game’s the 34th award in total. Overwatch is the first first-person shooter game to win the GDCA award since Half-Life 2 in 2004.
Overwatch enjoyed immediate success after launch in May 2016, with a player base quickly shooting into the millions. That number now sits at over 25 million with a burgeoning competitive scene, generating well over $500 million in revenue for Blizzard in 2016.
Away from Overwatch‘s big win, the lifetime achievement award also went to someone with an esports connection. The award went to Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, whose Unreal Tournament series was a staple of esports events in the early 2000s.
Unreal Tournament arguably paved the way for esports games like Team Fortress and eventually Overwatch as a team-based shooter, playing a major part in World Cyber Games events, one of the earliest esports competitions.
