Starfield takes home the Golden Joystick Award for Xbox Game of the Year 2023

Starfield winning at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield has won the Xbox Game of the Year prize at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023 powered by Intel.

Highly anticipated since its reveal back in 2018, Starfield was finally released in September to a collective sigh of relief from Xbox fans. With much of the year's biggest headlines dominated by legal battles over Microsoft's pricey acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it was vital that Starfield was a success for Xbox Studios. 

But a success it was. Starfield has taken home the award for best Xbox game, beating out the following competition:

Starfield is Bethesda's first brand-new IP in over two decades and sees you assume the role of a space explorer in a truly gargantuan open-world RPG. Whether you pour hundreds of hours into shipbuilding, base building, weapon modding, or even collecting sandwiches from every planet you visit, Starfield is a game that lets you do it all.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Bethesda game without some colorful jank and extremely silly quests. Starfield has remained loyal to what makes games like Skyrim and Fallout so evergreen while reinventing what's possible for a fully armed Xbox-exclusive game. 

With the underwhelming release of Redfall and a fairly poor track record of Bethesda's games in recent years, there was a lot riding on Starfield when it launched in September. It's become easily one of the biggest titles of 2023, and it's gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 for ultimate GOTY glory.

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

Duncan Robertson
Hardware Editor

Ever since playing Journey at the age of 15, I’ve been desperate to cover video games for a living. After graduating from Edinburgh Napier University with a degree in Journalism, I contributed to the Scottish Games Network and completed an Editorial Internship over at Expert Reviews. Besides that, I’ve been managing my own YouTube channel and Podcast for the last 7 years. It’s been a long road, but all that experience somehow landed me a dream job covering gaming hardware. I’m a self-confessing PlayStation fanboy, but my experience covering the larger business and developer side of the whole industry has given me a strong knowledge of all platforms. When I’m not testing out every peripheral I can get my hands on, I’m probably either playing tennis or dissecting game design for an upcoming video essay. Now, I better stop myself here before I get talking about my favourite games like HUNT: Showdown, Dishonored, and Towerfall Ascension. Location: UK Remote