The results are in, and all the winners of this year’s Golden Joystick Awards have been confirmed. The 41st annual awards were hosted today in the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, UK, with awards handed out for a total of 23 categories.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 has walked away with the most accolades, with six in total including the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year Award. For the top prize, the highly acclaimed role-playing game managed to beat 19 competitors, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Baldur's Gate 3 was also given the awards for Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design, Best Game Community, Best Supporting Performer (which went to Astarion actor Neil Newbon), and PC Game of the Year. On top of that, developer Larian Studios also earned the award for Studio of the Year for its work on the game.
In other categories, Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky - the exploration and survival game which was first released in 2016 - walked away with the Still Playing award, while CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty bagged itself the Best Game Expansion award. Phantom Liberty also won the award for the Best Game Trailer.
Sea of Stars - a gorgeous pixel-art RPG from Sabotage Studios, earned Best Indie Game, while Guerrilla Games and Firesprite’s Horizon Call of the Mountain took home the award for Best VR Game. Speaking of VR, the award for Best Gaming Hardware went to PlayStation’s PSVR 2.
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series managed to win three different awards this year, with Final Fantasy 16 earning Best Audio, and Clive Rosfield actor Ben Starr taking home the Best Lead Performer award. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was given the award for Most Wanted Game.
The Best Multiplayer Game award went to NetherRealm Studio’s brutal fighting game, Mortal Kombat 1, while the Streamers' Choice Award was given to Riot Games’ tactical first-person shooter, Valorant.
Geometric Interactive’s debut game, the unique puzzle-adventure Cocoon, was presented with the Breakthrough Award. Meanwhile, the Critics’ Choice Award went to Remedy Entertainment’s survival horror game Alan Wake 2.
Finally, the award for Nintendo Game of the Year went to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, while PlayStation Game of the Year was given to Resident Evil 4, and Xbox Game of the Year was awarded to Starfield.
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