The Golden Joystick Awards return on November 11, later this year. The shortlist will be revealed as voting opens on September 25th across 21 hotly contested categories, including PC Game of the Year, Best Visual Design and Most Wanted Game.
Last year, Sandfall Interactive took home a whopping seven awards for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. But who will take home this year’s trophies? That’s for you to decide.
Key Dates for the Golden Joystick Awards 2026
Nominations open |
August 6, 2026 |
Nominations close |
August 28 |
Shortlist announced and voting opens |
September 25 |
Voting closes |
October 23 |
UGOTY voting opens |
October 26 |
UGOTY voting closes |
October 30 |
Awards ceremony |
November 11 |
Follow @gamesradar or @GoldenJoysticks on X for more reporting and interviews live from our central London show on November 11.
The Golden Joystick Awards 2026 recognises the best games of the last 12 months.
Golden Joystick Awards 2026 Categories
The Golden Joystick Awards 2026 nominees will be revealed on September 25, which is when the first round of public voting will begin.
You can see the full list of publicly voted categories below:
- Best Storytelling
- Best Multiplayer Game
- Best Visual Design
- Best Indie Game
- Best Indie Game - Self Published
- Still Playing Award - PC and Console
- Still Playing Award - Mobile
- Best Remake / Remaster
- Studio of the Year
- Best Game Expansion
- Best Audio Design
- Best Soundtrack
- Best Lead Performer
- Best Supporting Performer
- PC Game of the Year
- Console Game of the Year
- Best Early Access Game
- Best Gaming Hardware
- Best Game Adaptation
- Best Game Trailer
- Most Wanted Game
- Ultimate Game of the Year
Watch the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 below
The Golden Joystick Awards 2025 was live streamed on all major platforms on Thursday, November 20 at 8am PST / 11am EST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CEST.
During October and early November, you cast over 21 million votes in categories including Best Storytelling, Best Indie Game and Most Wanted Game in support of your games of the year - with the winners revealed during our live show hosted by Maggie Roberston (Lady Dimitrescu, Resident Evil Village).
Read on to find out everything you need to know about the 43rd Annual Golden Joystick Awards, including a list of all winners, and how to rewatch the show,
Golden Joystick Awards 2025 Steam sale page
You can find all of our categories, nominees and winners on the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 Steam sale page (excluding console or format exclusive games that are not available on PC, such as Ghost of Yotei, which is a PS5-exclusive).
Main voting in the world’s longest-running video game awards, the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 powered by MSI, closed at midnight GMT / 8pm EDT on Oct 31.The winners of over 20 categories such as Best Gaming Hardware, Best Indie Game and Best Storytelling can be found in this full list of Golden Joystick Awards 2025 winners.
Ultimate Game of the Year voting took place in a separate window from Nov 3 - Nov 7 with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 claiming our most-coveted prize.
How to claim your free gaming ebook
As an added bonus, everyone who votes in the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 can claim a free ebook worth up to £12.99 / $18.99 from a selection including:
- Retro Gamer Presents: The RPG Book
- The Big Book of Nintendo
- Ultimate Guide to Roblox
- 100 PlayStation Games To Play Before You Die
- Retro Gamer Book of Arcade Classics
To claim your free ebook, simply enter your email address and click the ‘Register my Votes’ button when you finish voting. We will contact you shortly afterwards and you can choose your free ebook from our selection.
Ultimate Game of the Year 2025 voting
Main public voting in 21 categories opened on the same date as we revealed the nominees on October 3, and closed on Friday October 31.
Our most-coveted award, Ultimate Game of the Year (UGOTY), took place in a separate voting window, which started on Monday Nov 3 until Friday Nov 7.
This separate voting window allows our judges to consider titles that are released during the main voting window from Oct 3 - Oct 31, and gives you more time to play the big winter releases.
Which games made our hotly-debated UGOTY shortlist? Check out the nominees below and watch the winner crowned live on Thursday, November 20.
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- PEAK
- Ghost of Yotei
- Hades II
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- Blue Prince
- Silent Hill f
- Split Fiction
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
How the Golden Joystick Awards work
What are the Golden Joystick Awards?
The GJAs are held in special regard because they are voted for by those who buy and play games. Every year, millions of fans support their favorite games, developers, publishers, and people of the last 12 months.
Now in its 43rd year, the Golden Joystick Awards will be returning as an in-person live show at 8 Northumberland Avenue, London on November 20, 2025. You can book your tickets and tables here.
How games are nominated in the Golden Joystick Awards
Publisher nominations for the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 are now closed.
Every year, we invite the industry to nominate the games, people and studios that they believe deserve recognition in this year’s categories. We want to make sure that a wide pool of potential nominees is being considered.
The final shortlist is chosen by the Golden Joystick Awards judging panel with reference to this list of nominees. The judges consist of editors and contributors from our sister brands including PC Gamer, Future Games Show, Edge magazine, Retro Gamer, GamesRadar and a variety of industry experts.
By definition, we can’t guarantee that every nominated game will make the shortlist, but you can be assured that it will be considered and debated by our judging panel.
We strive to create a broad list of categories and nominees which represent the best that gaming has to offer. Sadly, this always means we have to exclude some much-loved and popular titles.
Golden Joystick Awards 2025 nominations criteria
- To be eligible for core voting across 21 categories, the game must have been released between November 1, 2024 (when core 2024 voting closed) and October 3, 2025 (when core 2025 voting begins).
- Exceptions are sometimes made for games that release early in the public voting window, which might have already been extensively played or tested by our judges (for example, if we received a copy weeks earlier for an embargoed review)
- Ongoing / online games which launched before this period are eligible for the ‘Still Playing’ and ‘Best Game Expansion’ categories.
- Games set for release after November 20 (the day of our show), 2025 will be eligible for the Most Wanted award.
- Games released between October 3, 2025 (when 2025 core public voting opens) and November 3, 2025 (the day that UGOTY voting begins) will be considered for Ultimate Game of the Year.
- Exceptions are sometimes made for games that release early in the Ultimate Game of the Year voting window (e.g. Nov 4) which might have already been extensively played or tested by our judges (for example, if we received a copy weeks earlier for an embargoed review).
- Games released between 20th November 2024 and 20th November 2025 (the day of the awards) will be considered for our 2025 critically selected categories.
- Here are ALL the winners from the Golden Joystick Awards 2024
- Golden Joystick Awards Steam page - check out all the winners and nominees
