The clock is almost out for the biggest Golden Joystick prize. Public voting for Ultimate Game of the Year at the 44th Golden Joystick Awards closes on October 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET and 5:00 p.m. PT, which is 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on October
31. The 12 nominees were revealed on October 26, voting opened the same day on the official Golden Joystick Awards site, and the winner will be named at the ceremony at Troxy in London on November 11.
At a glance
Deadline: October 30, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. ET and 5:00 p.m. PT, which is 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on October 31.
Nominees: 12 games, revealed October
26. Each ballot asks voters to rank their top three games.
Eligibility: games released between November 8, 2025, and October 25, 2026, with exceptions for games judges played early through review copies.
Ceremony: November 11, 2026, at Troxy in London, hosted by Alix Wilton Regan, streamed on YouTube, Twitch, and X.
Separate window: the 21 core categories closed October
23. Ultimate Game of the Year runs on its own five-day ballot.
The 12 nominees
The shortlist, in alphabetical order, is 007 First Light, Big Walk, CONTROL Resonant, Crimson Desert, Dispatch, Forza Horizon 6, Phantom Blade Zero, Pokémon Pokopia, PRAGMATA, Resident Evil Requiem, STAR WARS: Galactic Racer, and The Blood of Dawnwalker. The mix is the point. Large franchises sit next to smaller studio projects: James Bond, Resident Evil, Pokémon, and Star Wars share the ballot with the walking co-op game Big Walk, the superhero workplace story Dispatch, and the vampire RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker.
Two names on the ballot carry a timing quirk. Phantom Blade Zero and STAR WARS: Galactic Racer had not been released when the shortlist was posted on October 26, under an eligibility rule that allows exceptions for games judges have already played extensively, including through early review copies. Phantom Blade Zero resolves its own case by launching on October 29, inside the voting window, with an 88 on Metacritic from its early reviews. Crimson Desert, another nominee, adds its own deadline-adjacent event: its Charting the Unknown DLC unlocks in Asia on October 30, one day before the Beijing voting deadline.
How the vote works
The shortlist is picked by a judging panel of editors and contributors from GamesRadar and its sister brands, including PC Gamer, Edge, and Retro Gamer, along with industry experts. Players then decide the winner, and each ballot asks voters to rank their top three games rather than pick a single name. That ranked format matters in a 12-game field: a game with broad second-choice support can beat a game with a passionate but narrow base, so the winner is likely to be a consensus pick as much as a favorite.
The separate window exists for a practical reason. Ultimate Game of the Year runs apart from the 21 core categories, which closed on October 23, so judges and players get more time with the big autumn releases. The eligibility window runs from November 8, 2025, to October 25,
2026. One famous absence follows from the calendar alone: Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19, eight days after the ceremony, so it was never in the running this year, and it will be a 2027 question instead.
What last year says about this year
Last year sets the scale. Fans cast more than 21 million votes, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took home seven awards, including Ultimate Game of the Year. That result is a reminder that this prize is decided by a public vote at a scale few game awards reach, and that a breakout title can sweep a ballot that includes far larger budgets. This year, eight of the 12 nominees also appear on the PC Game of the Year or Console Game of the Year shortlists, while Dispatch, CONTROL Resonant, Phantom Blade Zero, and STAR WARS: Galactic Racer are new to the top-tier ballot.
The ceremony itself has a new face. Actor Alix Wilton Regan, the voice of Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider Catalyst, hosts the November 11 show at Troxy in London, with guest presenters from across gaming, and the show streams on YouTube, Twitch, and X alongside the in-person event. The 44th edition of the awards launched in 1983, which makes it one of the longest-running public-vote game awards, and the Ultimate Game of the Year prize remains its closing argument.
A ballot that rewards playing, not just picking
The useful move before the deadline is to play, not to argue. Phantom Blade Zero is out today, Crimson Desert has a DLC landing on October 30 in Asia, and the rest of the ballot covers games that have been available for months, so most voters can still form a ranked top three from experience rather than from trailers. The ranked format rewards exactly that: a voter who has played three nominees can rank them honestly, while a voter who has played one can only guess at the other two slots.
The Beijing deadline deserves a final note, because it falls on a different date from the American one. The ballot closes at 8:00 p.m. ET on October 30, which is 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on October 31, so readers in China have until Saturday morning, not Friday night. Votes cast after that point do not count, and the winner is named eleven days later, on November 11, when the ranked ballots become a single name on a London stage.