Huzzah, nerds! At Sunday night’s Emmy Awards ceremony, “Game of Thrones,” the HBO series based on the books by George R.R. Martin, finally won the top prize: Best Drama.

Why is this such a huge accomplishment?

“Lost” was, heretofore, the only science-fiction/fantasy show to ever win that same trophy. That was back in 2005, when J.J. Abrams’ hit ABC show was just a freshman. That was before “Lost” spiraled into an out-of-control spasm of time travel, Jacob, invisible foes and Penny’s boats — catnip for us geeks, but too much for fed-up Emmy voters. Outside of a smoke monster and a few foreboding clues, the easily digestible first season of “Lost” was more mysterious than scientific or fantastical. The Emmys are used to honoring suspense, and thus they did.

“Game of Thrones,” meanwhile started right off the bat as a dense program replete with millennia of history, tradition and colorful characters who we never even meet — enough royals and rogues for a thousand Ren Faires. Yet throughout five seasons it has gathered fans and critical acclaim regardless — and, finally, scooped up the Emmy Award for Best Drama on Sunday night. So, how did it get there?

British accents:

Although loosely riffing on historical British figures, Westeros is, obviously, not England. It’s fake! But everyone in the Seven Kingdoms (not Meereen, Braavos, etc.) has a British accent — including Tyrion Lannister, played by the American Peter Dinklage. A British brogue just makes Americans feel better about what they’re watching. It classes things up, we think, and always has, from “Upstairs Downstairs” to “Sherlock.” Plus, awards-show voting bodies love nothing more than to honor Brits. The posh voices at play help disguise what “Game of Thrones” essentially is: sexy “Dungeons & Dragons.” Which leads me to . . .

Sex:

Once thought gratuitous — remember Skinemax? — sex and nudity are now a mark of artistry on television. Cable can show nudity (the broadcast networks, meanwhile, dramatize wholesome depictions of Dolly Parton’s life story as a countermove), and they do — in nearly everything. Their argument for shedding garments is sound. Sex is a natural part of life that can, when presented correctly, make a character more, well, fleshed-out and human. Lena Headey’s naked (well, sort of) walk of shame through King’s Landing was one of the most talked-about scenes in the TV season. Then again, sometimes sex is just thrown in there to spice things up.

Cash:

A constant roadblock with J.J. Abrams’ old TV series, and part of the reason, I’m sure, that he jumped to film, was that his vision usually exceeded the possibility of his budgets. Think back to “Alias,” Abrams’ ABC spy drama that starred Jennifer Garner as a wig-wearing femme fatale. Every city Sydney Bristow visited, be it Zurich, LA, Buenos Aires or Tokyo, looked exactly the same. That’s because “Alias” episodes were filmed on the same, run-of-the-mill soundstage.

Well, “Game of Thrones” has a huge budget (it’s been reported that, on average, an episode costs $6 million) that enables the show to create real-looking battles, carnage and leper-like stonemen. The episodes look so awesome that HBO occasionally airs them in IMAX theaters. It’s hard for even the fantasy-hating Emmy voter not to admire the freewheeling spending.

Damn good writing:

An irksome trend on television is elongated story arcs where little happens plotwise. I’m looking at you, “Mad Men”! American writers, by and large, are better at crafting intriguing characters than plot, and so they lean on slow-boiling emotional narratives rather than truly satisfying events. Not so with “Game of Thrones.”

In the first episode (spoiler alert . . . sigh), a kid is knocked out of a top-floor window because he caught a glimpse of an incestuous power-couple, um, entwined. And that’s tame by this show’s standards! The plotting, dialogue, character and direction have been spot-on for all five seasons of “Game of Thrones,” leaving fans consistently breathless and watery-eyed. That said, everything rides on what series author Martin types up for the long-awaited sixth book, “The Winds of Winter.”