The 2025 Game Developers Conference – GDC – is in full swing in San Francisco, and we now know the winners of the Game Developer Choice Awards. It’s the 39th edition, and one game takes home the coveted GOTY award.
Unsurprisingly, it’s the wildly popular Balatro. We’re huge fans of the game – just check out our Balatro review here – and are glad to see it receive even more recognition as GDC’s Game of the Year.
Balatro didn’t just get the Game of the Year – oh, no, it swept the awards. The card game earned the Innovation, Best Debut, and Best Design awards on top of the overall crown. And all rightly so, given its monumentally successful debut in 2024.
The game has had a triumphant year, winning Mobile Game of the Year at the Game Awards and pumping out plenty of cosmetics based on super popular game franchises, including Fallout, The Witcher, and many more.
Other awards went to Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio for Best Narrative, Life is Strange: Double Exposure for Social Impact, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth snapped up the Audience Award.
We also found out why Sam Lake, director of Alan Wake 2, was at the event – he got a highlight with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Similarly, Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, received the Pioneer Award for this innovative work.
If you’re looking for some more of the best mobile games to play, we can recommend some, or maybe you want to try these upcoming Switch games to broaden your horizons between Balatro sets.