No Man's Sky wins the "Still Playing" medal at the Golden Joystick Awards

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The best comeback in video game history?

No Man's Sky winning at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023
(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man's Sky has earned yet another accolade for its longevity - it's won the "Still Playing" award at the Golden Joystick Awards powered by Intel. 

Despite an infamously poor launch back in 2016, No Man's Sky has continued to grow from strength to strength ever since. Developer Hello Games has refused to give up on its little space sim that could, sticking with the project through studio floods, online hate, and an increase in competition.

2023 has seen four major content updates to No Man's Sky, with the most recent Echoes Update proving extremely popular with long-term fans, as well as disgruntled Starfield players who hoped for more seamless exploration.

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No Man's Sky has emerged victorious in one of the most competitive and heavily populated categories in the Golden Joystick portfolio this year, beating out Fortnite, Apex Legends, and even last year's winner, Genshin Impact.

The full list of Golden Joystick Awards 2023 nominees is as follows:

  • No Man's Sky (winner)
  • Genshin Impact
  • The Sims 4
  • Fortnite
  • Naraka Bladepoint
  • GTA Online
  • Warframe
  • Valorant
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / Counter-Strike 2
  • Apex Legends
  • Dota 2
  • Call of Duty

With today's Live Service market being arguably over-saturated, a critical failure from 2016 had its work cut out for it in the field above. Luckily, Sean Murray's dedication to the project has produced one of the most popular space games currently available. 

Earlier in the year, a lot of folks prophesized the end of No Man's Sky due to its similarities to Starfield, but a strong PSVR 2 port, as well as a celebration of its seventh birthday, helped carry it through the year.

In September of 2023, right around the time of Starfield's launch, No Man's Sky reached a peak concurrent player count for the year at 27,000+ players, according to Steambase. That's not far off its all-time peak of 35,000 players. 

Back in 2020, No Man's Sky scooped up the Ongoing Game award at the Game Awards, and since then it has won multiple Community Support awards as well. 

Discover the best games of 2023 at the best prices by checking out the Golden Joystick Awards Steam sale page

Duncan Robertson
Duncan Robertson
Hardware Editor

One of my earliest memories is playing SuperMario64 and wondering why the controller I held had three grips, but I only had two hands. Ever since I've been in love with video games and their technology. After graduating from Edinburgh Napier University with a degree in Journalism, I contributed to the Scottish Games Network and completed an Editorial Internship at Expert Reviews. Over the last decade, I’ve been managing my own YouTube channel about my love of games too. These days, I'm one of the resident hardware nerds at GamesRadar+, and I take the lead on our coverage of gaming PCs, VR, controllers, gaming chairs, and content creation gear. Now, I better stop myself here before I get talking about my favourite games like HUNT: Showdown, Dishonored, and Towerfall Ascension.