Baldur's Gate 3 has been nominated in five categories at this year's Gayming Awards

Dame Aylin and Isobel kiss
(Image credit: Larian)

Gayming Magazine's annual awards for celebrating queerness in videogames are back for their fourth year. The nominees have been announced and Baldur's Gate 3 is in the lead, being up for five potential awards: Game of the Year, the Gayming Magazine Readers Award, the Authentic Representation Award, Best LGBTQ Character (two nominations, one for Dame Aylin and one for Shadowheart), and Larian is also in the running for the Industry Diversity Award.

Thirsty Suitors, which we called 2023's second-best RPG about people who are too horny for their own good, has also done well. It's been nominated for Game of the Year, Best LGBTQ Indie Game, the Authentic Representation Award, and Best LGBTQ Character for its protagonist, Jala. Tchia, our pick for best open world game of 2023, has another four nominations, while Final Fantasy 16 is up for three awards.

The Gayming Awards show will be held in Los Angeles this year, and will be broadcast on Gayming Magazine's Twitch and TikTok channels at 2pm ET on April 7. "Our move to a virtual show set in LA not only ensures that the Awards can be made with higher production standards," said Gayming Awards creator Robin Gray, "but we can also increase its accessibility and reach by broadcasting at a more globally convenient time along with offering captioned streams and our new Spanish language co-stream. These changes are hugely exciting, and I’m thrilled to be celebrating LGBTQ excellence in gaming with a bigger and more diverse audience." The full list of nominees is below.

Game of the Year

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – Larian Studios
  • Final Fantasy 16 – Square Enix
  • Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo
  • Thirsty Suitors – Outerloop Games / Annapurna Interactive 
  • Spider-Man 2 – Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment 
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical – Summerfall Studios / Humble Games

Gayming Magazine Readers Award – sponsored by Devolver Digital

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – Larian Studios
  • Final Fantasy 16 – Square Enix
  • Goodbye Volcano High – KO_OP
  • Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo 
  • Tchia – Awaceb / Kepler Interactive 
  • This Bed We Made – Lowbirth Games

Best LGBTQ Indie Game – powered by TikTok

  • Coral Island – Stairway Games / Humble Games
  • In Stars and Time – insertdisc5
  • Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical – Summerfall Studios / Humble Games
  • Tchia – Awaceb / Kelper Interactive
  • Thirsty Suitors – Outerloop Games / Annapurna Interactive 
  • This Bed We Made – Lowbirth Games

LGBTQ Streamer of the Year

  • Apothicdecay
  • Eevoh
  • Elix
  • EspeSymone
  • Halfmoonjoe
  • MysticKittenn
  • Sheilur
  • SpringSims

Authentic Representation Award

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – Larian Studios
  • Coral Island – Stairway Games / Humble Games 
  • The Sims 4 – Maxis / EA Games 
  • The Expanse: A Telltale Series – Telltale Games / Deck Nine
  • Thirsty Suitors – Outerloop Games / Annapurna Interactive 
  • This Bed We Made – Lowbirth Games

Best LGBTQ Character

  • Aloy – Horizon Forbidden West
  • Dame Aylin – Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Dion Lesage – Final Fantasy XVI 
  • Jala – Thirsty Suitors 
  • Shadowheart – Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Tchia – Tchia

Industry Diversity Award

  • Humble Games 
  • Larian Studios
  • Latinx In Gaming
  • Qweerty Gamers 
  • Roll7 
  • Women In Games International

Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports Award

  • Bailey McCann
  • Bethany “Indyburgh” Pyles 
  • Cora Kennedy 
  • Emma “Emzii” Rose 
  • Slaypex & Kylie Gabor 
  • Team Overture

LGBTQ Geek Entertainment Moment of the Year Award

  • Doctor Who: The Star Beast – Bad Wolf & BBC Studios
  • Harley Quinn – DC Studios & Warner Brothers Animation
  • Nimona – Netflix & Annapurna Pictures
  • Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – Netflix
  • The Last of Us: Long, Long Time: HBO
  • The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 2 – Amazon Studios & Critical Role
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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