Golden Joystick Awards vs The Game Awards: Voting Differences
The Golden Joystick Awards and The Game Awards are the two biggest annual video game award shows, but they pick winners in very different ways: the Golden Joysticks are decided almost entirely by public fan voting, while The Game Awards uses a mix of a jury vote and a smaller fan vote. This article breaks down exactly how nominations and voting work for each show, what that means for the results, and how to participate in both.
Background: Two Shows, Two Philosophies
The Golden Joystick Awards began in 1983 in the UK, originally run by the magazine Computer and Video Games. It is the longest-running video game awards show in the world. From the start, it has been a fan-driven event: readers and later website visitors vote directly for their favorite games across many categories, from Best Story to Ultimate Game of the Year.
The Game Awards launched in 2014, created by Geoff Keighley after the dissolution of the Spike Video Game Awards. It positions itself as a more “industry” show, with a global jury of media outlets and influencers. While it also has a fan vote component, the jury holds the majority of the power, especially in the top categories like Game of the Year.
This fundamental difference shapes everything: who gets nominated, who wins, and how much a fan campaign can actually influence the outcome.
How Nominations Work: Jury vs. Fan Shortlist
The nomination process is where the two shows diverge most sharply.
The Game Awards Nominations
For The Game Awards, a jury of around 100+ media outlets and content creators from around the world submits a ballot. The jury members are selected by the show’s organizers. They vote on a shortlist of games released in the eligibility window (usually November of the previous year to November of the current year). The games with the most jury votes become the nominees (usually 5-6 per category). The public has no direct say in nominations—they can only vote after the nominees are announced.
Golden Joystick Nominations
The Golden Joysticks use a two-phase public vote. First, the public votes on a longlist of games (often 20 or more per category) compiled by the organizers. The top 5-6 games from that public vote become the final nominees. Then a second round of public voting decides the winners. There is no jury in the traditional sense—the community decides both who gets nominated and who wins.
This means a passionate fanbase can push a niche game onto the Golden Joystick shortlist, while a game that critics love but that has little mainstream buzz might not even get nominated at The Game Awards if the jury doesn’t favor it.
How Voting Works: Weight and Influence
Even after nominations are set, the voting mechanics differ in weight.
The Game Awards Voting
For The Game Awards, the winner is determined by a weighted vote:
- Jury vote (90%): The same jury that nominated the games casts a final vote. This is the decisive factor.
- Fan vote (10%): The public votes online (via the official website, Discord, and in some years, social media). This counts for 10% of the final score.
In practice, the fan vote can break ties but rarely overrides the jury’s collective preference. A game that wins the fan vote but is not in the jury’s top two will almost never win Game of the Year.
Golden Joystick Voting
The Golden Joysticks are 100% public vote. Anyone can create a free account on the awards website and vote once per category per round. There is no jury weighting. The game with the most public votes wins, period.
This makes the Golden Joysticks far more susceptible to “vote brigading”—organized fan campaigns on social media, Reddit, or Discord can swing results. It also means that a game with a massive but casual audience (like a FIFA or Call of Duty title) can beat a critically acclaimed indie game simply because more people play it and vote.
Which Show Matters More for Developers?
Developers and publishers care about both, but for different reasons.
The Game Awards is often seen as the more “prestigious” win because it reflects critical consensus and industry recognition. Winning Game of the Year there is a major marketing asset and is frequently cited in a game’s promotional materials. The show also has a massive live audience (often 100+ million streams) and is a platform for world premieres, so even being nominated generates significant buzz.
The Golden Joysticks, on the other hand, are a direct measure of fan love. A win there signals strong community support, which is valuable for live-service games, indie titles, and franchises with dedicated fanbases. It also has a long history, so winning it carries nostalgic weight for older gamers. Some developers have said a Golden Joystick win feels more personal because it comes directly from the people who play the game.
Common Misconceptions and Criticisms
One common misconception is that The Game Awards is a “popularity contest.” In reality, the fan vote is only 10%, so it’s not. Another is that the Golden Joysticks are “rigged” because big franchises always win—that’s just the nature of a pure popularity vote.
A frequent criticism of The Game Awards is that the jury is not transparent. The list of jury members is published, but individual votes are not, so it’s impossible to know how close a race was or whether a particular outlet influenced the result. Critics also point out that the jury is dominated by Western outlets, which can lead to a bias toward English-language games.
The Golden Joysticks face the opposite criticism: they can be gamed by organized fan groups. In 2021, for example, the game Genshin Impact won the Ultimate Game of the Year award after a massive fan campaign, despite mixed critical reception. This is not a flaw per se—it’s the design—but it does mean the results can be more of a reflection of fandom intensity than game quality.
How to Vote in Both Shows
If you want to participate, here’s what you need to know:
- Golden Joysticks: Voting opens in October and runs for about two weeks. You need to create a free account on the official Golden Joystick Awards website (hosted by GamesRadar). You can vote in every category, and you can vote once per category. The winners are announced in November during a live stream.
- The Game Awards: Voting opens after the nominees are announced in November and runs until early December. You vote via the official website or through the show’s Discord. You need a Google or Discord account to log in. You can vote once per category. The winners are announced during the live ceremony in December.
Both shows allow you to vote in all categories, but you can also skip categories if you haven’t played the games. There’s no cost to vote, and no purchase is required.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the fan vote ever override the jury at The Game Awards?
Technically, yes, but only if the fan vote is overwhelming and the jury is split. Since the fan vote is only 10%, a game would need to win the fan vote by a massive margin and have the jury’s second or third choice to overcome a jury favorite. In practice, this has never happened in the Game of the Year category—the jury favorite has always won.
Can I vote multiple times in the Golden Joysticks?
No. Each account can vote once per category per round. However, you can vote in both the nomination round and the final round, so you get two total votes per category across the whole process. Using multiple accounts is against the rules and can result in disqualification.
Are there any other awards shows with a similar format?
Yes. The D.I.C.E. Awards (run by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences) are entirely jury-based, similar to The Game Awards but with no fan vote at all. The BAFTA Games Awards also use a jury system, though they have a separate “EE Game of the Year” category that is fan-voted. The Steam Awards are entirely fan-voted, like the Golden Joysticks, but with a more chaotic nomination process.
Why do some games win the Golden Joysticks but not The Game Awards?
Because the audiences are different. The Golden Joysticks reflect the preferences of the broader gaming public, which skews toward multiplayer, action, and mainstream titles. The Game Awards reflect the preferences of critics and industry insiders, who often favor narrative-driven, innovative, or artistic games. A game like Elden Ring won both, but many games have won one and not the other.
Do the shows use the same eligibility period?
Not exactly. The Game Awards typically uses a period from late November to mid-November of the following year. The Golden Joysticks use a calendar year (January to November). This means a game released in November might be eligible for the Golden Joysticks but miss The Game Awards’ cutoff, or vice versa.
Is there any way to see how close the voting was?
No. Both shows keep vote counts private. The Game Awards only announces the winners, not the margins. The Golden Joysticks also do not publish vote counts. This is standard practice to avoid controversy and to protect the integrity of the results.
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Method: the standard formula for this calculation, rounded as each result states. See how the calculators work or report an error.