Even Baldur’s Gate 3 Fans Aren’t Sure It Deserved To Win The Labor Of Love Steam Award
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Baldur’s Gate 3 just won Labor of Love at the fan-voted Steam Awards, but even big fans of the game are a little unsure of whether it deserved it or not.
Yesterday, Valve shared the results of its yearly Steam Awards, which offer a variety of categories that fans can vote on to crown what they think is the most deserving nominee. This year’s winners are mostly pretty in line with what you’d expect, with Peak winning “Better With Friends”, Dispatch being awarded “Outstanding Story-Rich Game”, and Silksong taking home the Game of the Year award.
That being said, there are a few strange winners and omissions. We’ve already covered Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 fans being upset that it lost out at both of the awards it was up for, but there’s also been some confusion about one of the victors that even its fanbase thinks is a little bit of a rogue pick.
Baldur s Gate 3 May Have Won Labor Of Love, But Even Fans Are A Little Unsure Why
BG3 Is A Labor Of Love, No Question, But Was It 2025 s Best?
Out of all of the Steam Awards categories, one of the most contentious is the Labor of Love award, which Valve says is for games where developers “continue to nurture and support their creation”. So, basically, a game that’s seen a lot of updates and content drops well after its release.
After the global success of Baldur’s Gate 3, we sit down with Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke to talk all things Divinity.
Baldur’s Gate 3 ended up winning the award this year, beating out finalists like Dota 2, Rust, No Man’s Sky (a fan favourite of this category), and Helldivers 2. Although I don’t think anyone would argue that Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t a clear labor of love (well, unless you’re still mad about Larian’s recent AI controversy), but it seems that even the BG3 community is a little split on the victory.
Over on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, the news of the Steam Awards victory was shared by bicho117. While you’d think that Baldur’s Gate 3 fans would easily agree with winning Labor of Love, that’s not quite the case, as many fans are wondering how it managed to beat out the competition, especially No Man’s Sky.
The truth of it is that since the Steam Awards are entirely community-voted, it’s little more than a popularity contest. And boy, does Baldur’s Gate 3 have that in spades.
BraveNKobold said that they thought No Man’s Sky was more deserving, while flyxdvd said that Baldur’s Gate 3 has really only added more mod support in 2025. While that sentiment is echoed throughout the thread, some fans pointed out that the mod support, in-game mod manager, and especially Patch 8, were all massive additions that justify the Labor of Love achievement.
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Still, even with that defense, there are a lot of mixed feelings about the award, with one Redditor pointing out that it feels weird to celebrate Baldur’s Gate 3’s post-launch support when “Wyll’s combat lines are still voiced by the early access guy”. Even those with more than 500 hours in the game are a little confused about what it’s done to end up winning 2025’s award.
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I mean Silksong won GOTY over KCD and E33. The steam awards don’t mean much.
2026-01-06 09:21:12
