NFL 2K1 won GameSpot's annual "Best Dreamcast Game" and, among console games, "Best Sports Game (Traditional)" awards. It was also a runner-up for the publication's annual "Game of the Year" and "Best Multiplayer Game" prizes, which went respectively to Chrono Cross and Quake III Arena. The editors wrote that they "argued for more than an hour over whether Square's Chrono Cross or Sega's NFL 2K1 should win the award for Game of the Year".