Golden Joystick Awards 2024: Nominees will be revealed on Friday Oct 4

GJA 2024 Logo
(Image credit: Future)

The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 will begin voting on Friday, October 4, as we reveal the shortlists in 19 public-voted categories including Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design and the coveted Most Wanted award.

Head right here via goldenjoysticks.com to see the nominees revealed at 9am EDT / 6am PDT / 2pm BST / 3pm CEST on Friday October 4

When does voting take place?

Swen Vincke

Larian Studios' CEO Swen Vincke holding a frankly unreasonable number of GJA trophies in 2023. (Image credit: Future)

Main voting opens on the same date as we reveal the nominees on October 4, and closes on Friday November 1,

The Ultimate Game of the Year award takes place in a separate voting window, which starts on Monday Nov 4 until Friday Nov 8. This allows you more time to play the big winter releases and offer your support for the best games of 2024.

You can read about all of the Golden Joystick Awards 2023 winners here, with Baldur’s Gate 3 / Larian Studios taking home a record seven trophies, plus Sea of Stars, PS VR2 and Ben Starr among the winners.

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 42nd year, the Golden Joystick Awards will be returning as an in-person live show at the De Vere Connaught Rooms, London on November 21, 2024. You can book your tickets and tables here.

How games are nominated in the Golden Joystick Awards:

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Before the first vote is cast, the Golden Joysticks judging panel meets to compile our shortlist of nominees. The judges consist of editors and contributors from our sister brands including PC Gamer, Edge magazine, Retro Gamer, GamesRadar and a variety of industry experts.

The judges' initial long list is combined with publisher nominations collated through an online form. This year’s judging was more ferociously debated than ever, resulting in one of our most comprehensive and diverse shortlists yet.

We strive to create a broad list of categories and nominees which represent the best that gaming has to offer. Sadly, we've had to exclude some much-loved and popular titles. We strive to make the judging process as transparent and meritocratic as possible and are always looking for constructive feedback.

How does judging work?

Best DS games

Golden Joystick Awards judging is led by a panel of experts from GamesRadar, PC Gamer, Edge magazine and other Future PLC brands, not by a cartoon attorney. (Image credit: Capcom)

Nominations for the Golden Joystick Awards 2024 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 consisting of Future editors and our trusted network of journalists with reference to this list of nominees. 

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.

When will the shortlist be announced?

The final shortlist will be announced on October 4, with voting starting that very same day. 

Golden Joystick Awards 2023 nominations criteria

  • The game must have been released between November 11, 2023 and October 4, 2024 (when core 2024 voting begins).
  • 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 21 (the day of our show), 2024 will be eligible for the Most Wanted award.
  • Games released between October 4, 2023 (when public voting opens) and November 21, 2024 (the day of the awards) will be considered for our critically selected categories, plus the voted categories Ultimate Game of the Year, Best Lead Performer and Best Supporting Performer.

We look forward to seeing you all on October 4 when we reveal the nominees.

Key Dates for the Golden Joystick Awards 2024

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Nominations openAugust 8, 2024
Nominations closeAugust 31
Shortlist announced and voting opensOctober 4
Voting closesNovember 1
UGOTY voting opensNovember 4
UGOTY voting closesNovember 8
Awards ceremonyNovember 21

Stay tuned for announcements about hosts, exclusive trailers and more surprises

Follow @gamesradar or @GoldenJoysticks on Twitter for more announcements about new categories, exclusive trailers and our special guest hosts. The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 will award the best games of the last 12 months. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Dan Dawkins

FGS Content Director. Former GamesRadar+ EIC, GTAVoclock host, and PSM3 editor; with - *counts on fingers and toes* - 20 years editorial experience. Loves: spreadsheets, Hideo Kojima and GTA. 

With contributions from