Golden Joystick Awards Nominees Revealed; Voting Open
Ten games, including Crimson Desert and Valheim, are up for PC Game of the Year at the 44th Golden Joystick Awards.
The shortlist of nominees in the publicly voted categories for the 44th annual Golden Joystick Awards has been announced, according to pcgamer.com, with voting now open.
Ten games make up the PC Game of the Year field: Big Walk, Crimson Desert, Escape from Tarkov, Esoteric Ebb, Meccha Chameleon, Mewgenics, Order of the Sinking Star, Star War Zero Company, The Blood of Dawnwalker and Valheim.
To qualify for PC Game of the Year, nominees had to be released between November 1, 2025 and September 25, 2026, unless pre-release versions were made available to judges before the deadline.
Voting closes on October 23 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET / midnight BST. Winners will be revealed at a ceremony on November 11.
The nominees for Ultimate Game of the Year will be revealed on October 26, when voting opens in that category.
An awards show with a long history
The Golden Joystick Awards have run long enough that they once handed out separate prizes for 8-bit and 16-bit games in each category. In 1988, rail shooter Operation Wolf was named 8-bit Computer Game of the Year, while the Bitmap Brothers' futuresport Speedball took 16-bit Computer Game of the Year.
Quick answers
When does Golden Joystick Awards voting close?
Voting closes on October 23 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET / midnight BST.
When are the Golden Joystick Awards winners announced?
Winners will be revealed at a ceremony on November 11.
When will the Ultimate Game of the Year nominees be revealed?
The nominees for Ultimate Game of the Year will be revealed on October 26, when voting opens in that category.