Fortnite named 2018’s Ultimate Game of the Year, beating Red Dead Redemption

Battle Royale just took out the biggest gaming award of 2018 at the Golden Joysticks and gamers on social media are not impressed.

2018 has been a solid year for gamers, which made voting for the Golden Joystick Ultimate Game of the Year all the more divisive.

This year, the coveted title was awarded to Fortnite Battle Royale.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Fortnite has logged a whopping 8.3 million concurrent players, with 78.3 million recorded gamers in one month alone.

Given the amount of attention the game has received — from a Monopoly version to parents who pay for Fortnite tutoring — it was undoubtedly expected to rank high on Golden Joystick’s list.

Our final award is for the Ultimate Game of the Year, sponsored by @AMD. And the winner is… @FortniteGame #FortniteBattleRoyale CONGRATULATIONS! #GoldenJoysticks pic.twitter.com/ZoMfHVkUPw

— Golden Joysticks (@GoldenJoysticks) November 16, 2018

The position as #1 however divided gamers on social media. While some defended the accolade, others shunned the game calling it the outcome of swarms of 10-year-olds voting. One gamer went as far as comparing Fortnite winning best game to Taylor Swift composing a symphony rivalling Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Lmfao kids must be deciding who wins these awards. #Fortnite just won ultimate game of the year at #GoldenJoysticks . Over a game that was better in every shape, way or form. Ps. Talking about #GodOfWar4. What a damn joke.

— UZZY (@UzzyCod) November 16, 2018

Really? Fortnite? Against God of War? Against Marvel's Spider-Man? Against Red Dead Redemption 2? Really? pic.twitter.com/QBK8wPJicz

— 🦃 TheIndustrialDev 🦃 (@Industrial_RBX) November 17, 2018

Lmao this is what happens when you let 10 year olds vote.

— Shinnox (@shinnox) November 16, 2018

Die-hard fans defended Fortnite’s win, engaging in a social media battle royale commending the game. Proud gamers labelled it deserving, loveable and worthy of winning Ultimate Game of the Year for the tireless efforts of developers.

deserve it? because it was insanely popular, but that is nothing, fortnite is amazing because epic games hear the community, and everything they've done to the game is thanks to the community, while overwatch is just a multiplayer game with loveable characters

— Nicolas Silva A. 🌐 (@Vasault) November 16, 2018

I see, one of them hipsters that think it's cool to hate Fortnite cause it's very succesful and little kids and non-gamers like to play it. Fortnite gets updated weekly and Epic Games literally put hundreds of millions into their eSports and everything.

— MadaVoid (@madavoid) November 16, 2018

The annual Golden Joystick awards created a debate about what constitutes an award-winning game. The award was heavily criticised for being a popularity contest, favouring the amount of players over gameplay and gaming innovation.

Many believed there were other games released in 2018 more deserving of accolades, two of which came close to taking the gaming crown. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4gave Fortnite a run for its money taking second and third positions respectively.

Many other games also cleaned up at the award ceremony; God of War won Best Storytelling, Subnautica was awarded best PC game and Forza Horizon 4 took out the Xbox Game of the Year.

Other notable previous winners of the prestigious Ultimate Game of the Year award include Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls, Grand Theft Auto and The Elder Scroll.