The Golden Joystick Awards has revealed its shortlist of nominees across 21 hotly contested categories, including PC Game of the Year, Best Visual Design and Most Wanted Game.
Click ‘Start Voting’ below to have your say in the world’s longest-running public-voted games awards.
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 |
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.
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 - Announced Oct 26
Golden Joystick Awards 2026 nominations criteria
- To be eligible for core voting across 22 categories, the game must have been released between 1st November 2025 and 25th September 2026.
- 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 11th November 2026 will be eligible for the Most Wanted award. This year’s Most Wanted award focuses on titles due in 2027 or with visible release windows, which excludes some notable games with distant release dates or no visibility.
- Games released between 8th November, 2025 and 25th October 2026 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. 27th October 2026), 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 2025 and 11th November 2026 will be considered for our 2026 critically selected categories.
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 2026 can claim a free ebook worth up to £12.99 / $18.99 from a selection including:
- 100 Retro Games to Play Before You Die
- RG Presents: The Handheld Gaming Collection
- The History of Videogames
- Ultimate Retro PC Gamer Collection
- Everything You Need To Know About Fortnite
- 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.
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 44th year, the Golden Joystick Awards will be returning as an in-person live show at Troxy, London on November 11, 2026. You can book your tickets and tables here.
How games are nominated in the Golden Joystick Awards
Publisher nominations for the Golden Joystick Awards 2026 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.
