
The 43rd Golden Joystick Awards' shortlist has just been revealed, and the voting is now open, but the hardest part has only just begun. This year, there are 21 categories, such as PC Game of the Year, Best Multiplayer Game, and Best Indie Game, all of which are completely stacked with stand-out games—it'll be almost impossible to pick between them.
"2025 is our most hotly-contested and unpredictable awards yet," Daniel Dawkins, content director of Golden Joystick Awards, says. "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Ghost of Yōtei and Hollow Knight: Silksong, lead our nominations, but the shortlist’s breadth and quality reflect a fast-evolving industry, where indies, AAs or IIIs—whatever you’d like to call them—frequently dominate play time and social discourse."