Hades 2 and Silksong Poised to Make Game Awards History with Dual GOTY Nominations
Two of the year’s biggest indie releases — Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong — have arrived with strong reviews and large audiences, and both are frequently mentioned in Game of the Year conversations. Below I lay out the concrete facts about scores, sales, and The Game Awards history so you can see why both names keep coming up.
- Game Awards history for indies
- Scores, sales and player peaks
- Hades 2 and Silksong: release context
- What it would mean if both are nominated
Game Awards history for indies
Historically, indie titles have been rare in The Game Awards’ main Game of the Year (GOTY) category. To date, only five games have been nominated in both Game of the Year and Best Independent Game: Inside, Celeste, Hades, Stray, and Balatro. Moreover, there have never been more than two games in the same year nominated in both categories.
Scores, sales and player peaks
Review aggregates and player numbers for the two titles are concrete and widely reported. First, review scores:
Hades 2 has aggregate ratings around 93 on major review-aggregate sites. Meanwhile, Silksong sits at about 92 on similar aggregates.
Second, player and sales figures for Silksong are notable. Reported peak concurrent players on Steam reached 587,150. Additionally, there are analyst estimates referenced in industry coverage; those estimates suggest Silksong sold roughly 3.2 million copies on Steam alone. For further detail, see the published analyst estimates and the reporting that cites the Steam figure on Eurogamer.
For context, another prominent release this year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, peaked at about 145,000 concurrent players on Steam.
Hades 2 and Silksong: release context
Hades 2 moved out of early access and into full release, attracting widespread critical attention and high aggregate scores. 
Hollow Knight: Silksong launched after many years of anticipation around the Hollow Knight series and gained very large concurrent player numbers on Steam at launch. 
What it would mean if both are nominated
If both titles are nominated in both Game of the Year and Best Independent Game, it would be notable within The Game Awards’ past patterns because, again, only five games have previously held nominations in both categories and there have not been more than two such games in a single year.
That is a factual point about the awards’ historical record. Beyond that, the concrete facts are that both games have high review scores and strong player numbers, and both meet common definitions of independently developed and self-published projects.
Sources: review aggregates, Steam concurrent figures, and published analyst and press reporting as noted above.
