Methodology
This page explains how the GOTY tracker chooses which results are included and turns them into scores and rankings.
Methodology
What do we count?
We collect verifiable GOTY results from official game publications, award shows, and reader polls. Each result is assigned to the year when that game mainly competed, and the public page shows only the context needed to understand the ranking.
Data use and attribution
- GOTY Ledger aggregate rankings and score data may be referenced with attribution to GOTY Ledger.
- Underlying award results, outlet names, game titles, and publisher materials remain attributable to their original owners and sources.
Which results are included?
- Overall GOTY or Best Game results with a clear winner are included.
- The result must be published in writing, such as an article, award page, or official poll page.
- It must be an official result from a publication, editorial team, award show, or reader vote, not one person's personal pick.
- If the result appears in video or podcast form, we use it only when the same result is also published in text.
- Only records with a clear source and final result are included.
Which results are excluded?
- Personal blogs, personal channels, and one-person picks are excluded.
- Platform-only publications are excluded from the main aggregate.
- Genre awards, platform awards, regional awards, and other non-overall categories are excluded.
- DLC or expansion results are excluded unless they are treated as full standalone releases.
- Results published far outside the normal GOTY season are usually excluded unless they are clearly delayed official awards.
- Candidate lists, reposts, unclear social posts, dead links, and unverifiable claims are excluded.
- Video-only results are excluded when there is no clear text version of the final result.
How are scores calculated?
- Each confirmed source can give a game up to 100 points for one year.
- If vote totals are public, points are split by each game's share of the vote.
- If only vote percentages are public, points are split using those percentages.
- Ranked lists count only the top 10 positions. Rank 1 receives 100 points, rank 2 receives 90, and rank 10 receives 10. Positions below 10 are not scored.
- If a winner and nominees are shown, the winner scores highest and the nominees are treated as one shared tier.
- If only a winner is published, that game receives 100 points. If the source explicitly declares a tie for first, those 100 points are split evenly.
How are ranks and ties decided?
- Rankings use the year when a game mainly competed, not just the article date.
- Even if a source labels the year differently, its score is assigned to only one competition year.
- Games are ordered by score share: each game's score compared with the maximum it could have earned from the included sources that year.
- If a game does not appear in a source result, it counts as 0 points from that source.
- Any game with a positive total score can enter the ranking.
- Public year pages show up to 20 games.
- If displayed scores match at one decimal place, the table shows a shared rank.
- Shared ranks use competition ranking, so two #1 entries are followed by #3.
- Within a tie, the order stays stable: winner selections, reflected sources, then title.
- The Cumulative Ranking page ranks games by cumulative score share across their public years.
What do the status labels mean?
Status labels summarize how far a year's source review has progressed. They do not mean every possible source has been found.
New sources and open leads are still being reviewed.
Known sources and candidates have been reviewed, with no open items currently pending.
Related navigation
Keep browsing
Use these links to go back to the year-by-year view or compare winners and records.