The air crackled inside the Peacock Theater last night, thick with anticipation and the faint scent of expensive cologne mingling with pixelated dreams. I sat there, nestled among fellow gamers and developers, a tiny cog in the massive machine of The Game Awards 2025, feeling the collective heartbeat quicken every time Geoff Keighley stepped back on stage. It felt like witnessing a high-stakes game of musical chairs played with golden statues, where legends were made and records shattered in the blink of an eye. Little did I know, I was about to see not one, but two seismic shifts in the annals of the ceremony's history within the span of a single, breathless hour.

The journey to this moment had been years in the making. Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios' magnum opus, was already a colossus. Its shadow loomed large over the event, a testament to its incredible 2023 run where it scooped six awards, including the coveted Game of the Year. Last year, it had added a seventh, tying it neck-and-neck with Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part 2 from 2020. That game's seven wins – Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Performance, Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Action/Adventure – had stood as the pinnacle for five long years. Baldur's Gate 3 had matched it, a titan gazing across the summit at another titan's frozen peak.

But Larian wasn't done. Their dedication to their players was legendary, and it showed. For the third consecutive year, Baldur's Gate 3 clinched the award for Best Community Support. The roar from the crowd was deafening. As Swen Vincke accepted the award, a wave of realization swept through the theater. This wasn't just another win; this was number eight. Baldur's Gate 3 had officially, decisively, climbed that final step. It stood alone. The undisputed king of The Game Awards mountain. The sheer weight of that achievement settled over us like a warm, familiar blanket. The record, held for so long, was finally broken. It felt monumental, a moment etched permanently in gaming history.

That warm feeling lasted about as long as a soap bubble in a wind tunnel. Because while we were celebrating Baldur's Gate 3's hard-won crown, another contender, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, had been quietly amassing an arsenal of its own. Like a comet streaking unexpectedly across the esports firmament, the French RPG had already blazed through five categories earlier in the evening:

• 🎼 Best Score and Music (Setting a haunting, beautiful tone)

• 🎮 Best Debut Independent Game (A stunning first outing)

• 🏆 Best Independent Game (Solidifying its indie dominance)

• 🎨 Best Art Direction (Visually breathtaking)

• 🎭 Best Performance (A well-deserved win for Jennifer English)

They still had five nominations pending. The tension shifted palpably. Baldur's Gate 3's record felt suddenly, incredibly fragile. And then, the inevitable cascade began. Clair Obscur swept through the remaining categories with the relentless precision of a master tactician:

1. Game of the Year - The biggest one. The crowd gasped.

2. Best Game Direction - Recognition for its vision.

3. Best Role-Playing Game - Directly challenging Baldur's Gate 3's core domain.

4. Best Narrative - Completing a near-perfect sweep.

It only stumbled once, losing the Players' Voice Award to Wuthering Waves. But that single loss barely registered. In the space of mere minutes:

• Baldur's Gate 3's reign as the 'Most Successful Game Ever' at TGA lasted less than 45 minutes.

• Clair Obscur didn't just tie the new record of eight wins; it shattered it completely, securing its ninth award just 17 minutes after its eighth.

The math was staggering:

Game	Total TGA Awards	Year(s) Won	Key Awards Won (Beyond Community Support/Performance)
Clair Obscur: Exp. 33	9	2025	Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score, Best Indie, Best Debut Indie
Baldur's Gate 3	8	2023, 2024, 2025	Game of the Year (2023), Best RPG (2023), Best Multiplayer (2023), Players' Voice (2023)
The Last of Us Part 2	7	2020	Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Innovation in Accessibility, Best Action/Adventure

Witnessing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 achieve this double crown – Most Awards in a Single Night (9) and Most Awards Overall at The Game Awards (9) – was simply breathtaking. It felt less like a victory lap and more like witnessing the birth of a new celestial body in the gaming universe. The sheer audacity of it, the speed, the dominance across such diverse categories... it was impossible not to be awestruck. As the final confetti fell and the developers of Clair Obscur stood dazed and elated under the spotlights, clutching their ninth statue, the truth resonated through the theater: records are made to be broken, and sometimes, they're broken twice in one unforgettable night. Baldur's Gate 3's monumental achievement wasn't diminished; it was simply part of an ever-evolving, thrilling narrative. The bar had been raised, spectacularly, by a game that arrived like a whirlwind and left as a legend. It's hard to imagine any game, now or in the future, deserving that incredible feat more than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did on this historic night. The landscape had changed, and I was there, wide-eyed, to see it happen.