Golden Joystick Awards 2024: Catch up with the event here

The winners of the Golden Joystick Awards 2024 were revealed in a live broadcast on Thursday, November 21 which you can watch below:

Golden Joystick Awards 2024 - YouTube Golden Joystick Awards 2024 - YouTube
Watch On

We've tallied a record 12 million+ votes cast in categories including Best Storytelling, Best Audio, Best Studio, Best Console Game and - our most prestigious award - Ultimate Game of the Year.

The winners were revealed in our awards ceremony, which took place in London, November 21. You can catch up with the event on all major streaming platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, X, gamesradar.com, Steam and more.

What will be crowned Ultimate Game of the Year? 

The Ultimate Game of the Year vote took place in its own voting window from Nov to Nov 8 to give players more time to consider 2024's big winter releases.

Main voting across 19 other categories, including Best Storytelling, Best Studio and Most Wanted Game, has now closed in the Golden Joystick Awards, the world’s longest-running video game awards.

Winners of ALL awards will be revealed in our live broadcast on Thursday, November 21 at 4pm GMT / 11am EST. Follow the Golden Joystick Awards on social for info on hosts, guests and more surprises.

Claim a FREE gaming ebook when you vote!

Free ebooks

(Image credit: Future)

As an added bonus, everyone who voted could claim a free ebook worth up to £12.99 / $18.99 from a selection including:

  • 100 Retro Games to Play Before You Die
  • 100 PlayStation Games To Play Before You Die
  • The History of Videogames
  • Ultimate Fan's Guide to Pokémon
  • Ultimate Guide to Roblox

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.

Golden Joystick Awards 2024 Categories

The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 nominations have been revealed, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Astro Bot leading the way with five nominations each. Breakout hit Helldivers 2 follows closely behind with four nominations and roguelike deck builder, Balatro with three nominations. Fan favourites such as Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree also make the shortlist. Plus acclaimed indies such as Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, UFO 50 and Animal Well. You can see the full list of publicly voted categories below, with new categories for 2024 flagged as *NEW. See the voting module for more category descriptions.

  • Best Storytelling
  • Best Multiplayer Game
  • Best Visual Design
  • Best Indie Game
  • Best Indie Game - Self Published (*NEW)
  • Still Playing Award - PC and Console (*NEW)
  • Still Playing Award - Mobile (*NEW)
  • Studio of the Year
  • Best Game Expansion
  • Best Audio Design (*NEW)
  • Best Soundtrack (*NEW)
  • Best Lead Performer
  • Best Supporting Performer
  • PC Game of the Year
  • Console Game of the Year (*NEW)
  • Best Early Access Game
  • Best Gaming Hardware
  • Best Game Trailer
  • Most Wanted Game

When does voting for Ultimate Game of the Year 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?

GJA 2019 Yu Suzuki

Yu Suzuki holds his Lifetime Achievement award in 2019 (Image credit: Future)

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, FGS, 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
Read more
GamesRadar Hardware Awards 2024
The GamesRadar+ Hardware Awards 2024: the best tech we've tested this year
FGS 2023 Multiple Logos
Future Games Show 2025: Watch the Spring Showcase on March 20
Baldur's gate 3 screenshot of a playermade tav and Gale in the background
Baldur's Gate 3 has changed so much in 2024 that I wish the RPG could be my GOTY again this year
Doom: The Dark Ages key art featuring the slayer on top a pile of bodies with the ruins of hell behind them
Everything announced at the Xbox Developer Direct 2025
Lenovo Legion Go S, Razer Blade 16, Nvidia RTX 50-Series, Hyperkin Competitor, and Shure microphone on a yellow background
GamesRadar's Best of CES: our 9 favorite announcements of 2025's show
Thank Goodness You're Here screenshot of the lead character being lifted into the air by a jovial man
I cover indie games every week, and the likes of Balatro, Animal Well, and Thank Goodness You're Here have made 2024 an unforgettable year
Latest in RPG
Games like The Witcher 3: A cut scene during Act 2 of Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3's corporate overlord says news on the future of the RPG series is coming "in pretty short order"
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot showing Astarion, a pale male elf with short curly white hair and red eyes, looking over his shoulder with a smirk on his face
Baldur's Gate 3 and Larian Studios lead Swen Vincke declares that single-player games are, in fact, not "dead" at all – "they just have to be good"
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot showing companion Shadowheart, a young half-elf woman with long tied-back black hair
Baldur's Gate 3 animation impresses Larian Studios, prompting one dev to say "mature" animation of the RPG "would pop the f*** off"
Undertale
As the wait for more Deltarune continues, Undertale goes on sale for just $1 on Steam and reaches a new peak player count after 10 years
Concept art of the Arkavir, a bulky alien race from Exodus with sharp and scaley skin.
Mass Effect veteran's new sci-fi RPG Exodus introduces an alien race, and they're so hardcore they put the Krogans to shame
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch responds to Sony's controversial AI Aloy by pushing for actor protections: "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI"
Latest in Features
Boro and Alta sit on a bench together in Wanderstop
"It's OK for me to move on": Years after scoring Minecraft, composer C418's latest project is about running a cozy tea shop with a "stupidly complex music system"
Thanara's Throne room made in Sigil
D&D Beyond's Sigil software isn't the worst VTT around, but it has a long way to go to compete with other 3D map makers
Demona confronting Goliath, Brooklyn, Lexington, and Angela
Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman digs into why Demona is the "single most dangerous character" in the entire franchise ahead of her new solo comic
Silent Hill 2
After Silent Hill 2 helped Bloober Team redeem itself, is the once-controversial studio poised to become horror's latest darling?
Titus in Warhammer Space Marine 2
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 promises to "redefine the standards of third-person action games," but I'd rather it fix Space Marine 2's biggest problem
Best Assassin's Creed protagonists: A collection of several of the heroes in the Assassin's Creed games edited together.
Ranking the best Assassin's Creed protagonists of all time