Resident Evil Requiem won Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2026 Golden Joystick Awards on Nov. 11, beating 11 other nominees in a close public vote.
Capcom’s survival horror game received 17% of the vote. Phantom Blade Zero finished second with 16%, followed by Crimson Desert at 15%. The results were announced during the 44th annual ceremony in London. Only two percentage points separated the top three games.
Resident Evil Requiem won four awards, including Console Game of the Year and Best Game Trailer. Angela Sant’Albano received Best Lead Performer for portraying Grace Ashcroft, one of the game’s two playable protagonists.
Released Feb. 27, Resident Evil Requiem is the ninth main installment in Capcom’s horror series. Players follow FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft and returning character Leon S. Kennedy as they investigate events connected to Raccoon City. The game allows players to switch between first- and third-person perspectives, with Grace’s sections focused on survival horror and Leon’s on action. The different styles give players a choice between tense exploration and more direct combat throughout the story.
First held in 1983, the Golden Joystick Awards are among gaming’s longest-running annual honors. Fans select most winners rather than leaving decisions entirely to critics or industry panels. This year’s ceremony included 25 categories, with 22 winners selected by public voting and three by industry judges.
Phantom Blade Zero, an action RPG from S-Game, came within one percentage point of winning despite releasing Oct. 29, just before voting closed. Crimson Desert, an open-world action-adventure from Pearl Abyss, also won PC Game of the Year.
Other Ultimate Game of the Year nominees included Dispatch, Control Resonant, Forza Horizon 6, Pokémon Pokopia, and Pragmata.
Capcom also won Studio of the Year. Onimusha: Way of the Sword received Best Audio Design, while Grace Saif won Best Supporting Performer for her role as Diana in Pragmata.
Dispatch, a superhero workplace comedy from AdHoc Studio, won Best Storytelling plus Best Soundtrack. Released in 2025, the game puts players in charge of assigning an unconventional team of superheroes to emergencies. Between missions, they handle conflicts among the characters and make decisions that affect the story.
Meccha Chameleon, an independent multiplayer hide-and-seek game developed in Japan, matched Resident Evil Requiem with four wins. Players use paint to disguise their characters to blend into the surrounding environment. It won Best Multiplayer Game, Best Indie Game (Self-Published), Streamers’ Choice, and Developers’ Choice. The last two were chosen outside the main public vote, an unusual result for a small project made by two developers.
Other winners included Valheim for Best Indie Game and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered for Best Remake or Remaster. The upcoming The Witcher 4 won Most Wanted Game.
Minecraft received the Still Playing Award for PC and Console, recognizing games that retain active audiences years after launch. Balatro won the mobile category.
Grand Theft Auto VI was absent from the nominations. Its scheduled Nov. 19 release falls after the Golden Joystick Awards’ eligibility cutoff.
The Golden Joystick Awards are separate from The Game Awards, scheduled for Dec. 10 in Los Angeles. The December event will choose its own Game of the Year winner, so Resident Evil Requiem’s Golden Joystick win does not settle the season’s biggest award.
The complete list of winners is available in the Golden Joystick Awards 2026 results.
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