The Golden Joystick Awards took place on November 21, 2024, kicking off this year’s season for video game awards – and Black Myth: Wukong grabbed the first big trophy of 2024, winning the Ultimate Game of the Year.
Most of the awards at the Golden Joysticks are based on popular votes with a few being decided by a jury of critics, giving these awards a very different character than something like The Game Awards, which gives a majority of the voting power to the jury and essentially keeps around the popular vote for engagement purposes.
Aside from GOTY, Wukong was awarded with Best Visual Design. Helldivers 2 won four awards at the show, taking home Best Multiplayer Game, Console Game of the Year, the Critics’ Choice Award, and Best Game Trailer – Arrowhead’s co-op shooter thus triumphed in more categories than any other title.
PC GOTY went to a deserved winner in Satisfactory, while Balatro won Best Indie Game and the Breakthrough Award, which was decided by critics. Minecraft and Honkai: Star Rail won the Still Playing Awards on Console/PC and Mobile, respectively.
We’ll have to wait until mid-December 2024 to see how this list will compare to the choices at The Game Awards.
