GTA 6 Locked Out of the 2026 Golden Joystick Awards — Clean GOTY Sweep Off the Table

Why GTA 6 can’t compete this November

The 44th Golden Joystick Awards will take place on November 11, 2026 — eight days before GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. With nominations closed since August 28 and public voting already underway, Rockstar’s biggest game simply cannot be in the running for this year’s awards, as reported by GTAVice.net.

https://www.gtavice.net/news/golden-joysticks-2026-and-the-winner-isnt-gta-6

Public voting for most categories opened on September 25 and runs until October 23, with Ultimate Game of the Year voting held separately from October 26 to October 30. Players won’t have GTA 6 in their hands at any point during that window — reviewers will still be playing it, as Push Square notes.

The “Big Five” sweep is off the table

The gaming press treats five ceremonies as the major Game of the Year awards: the Golden Joysticks, The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards and the BAFTA Games Awards — a sequence that typically runs from November through the following spring. Winning GOTY at all five in a single awards season is one of the rarest feats in gaming.

Only two games have ever done it: Baldur’s Gate 3, which collected the top honours across the 2023–24 cycle, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which repeated the achievement during the 2025–26 season, as TalkEsport details. Sandfall Interactive’s debut RPG joins Larian’s epic in an astonishingly exclusive club.

GTA 6 can’t join them in exactly the same way. Because the first ceremony in the sequence — the Golden Joysticks — will already be over before the game is out, a single-season sweep of all five is mathematically impossible, no matter how well Rockstar’s game is received. Even if GTA 6 won everything else, its eventual Golden Joystick would arrive in the 2027 season, a different awards cycle.

Who’s competing without GTA 6 in the field

The nominee shortlist, revealed this week, shows an unusually open race. 007: First Light and Big Walk lead the pack with five nominations each — the former in Best Storytelling, Best Soundtrack, Console Game of the Year and two acting categories, the latter across Best Audio Design, Best Indie Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Game Trailer and PC Game of the Year. Resident Evil Requiem follows with three mentions, per ixbt.games.

The Console Game of the Year shortlist tells the story of a stacked year even without Rockstar: 007 First Light, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Forza Horizon 6, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Nioh 3, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Pokémon Pokopia, PRAGMATA, Resident Evil Requiem and Saros.

Organisers describe this year’s race as among the “most open and unpredictable” in the show’s history, calling each public vote “more influential than ever”. Last year’s ceremony drew a record 21 million public votes, when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took seven awards including Ultimate Game of the Year.

The Game Awards could be tight too

The Golden Joysticks may not be the only ceremony where the calendar works against GTA 6. VG Times reports that The Game Awards 2026 — set for December 10 — has a nominee-selection deadline expected around November 20, barely a day after GTA 6 launches. With Rockstar’s typically strict review embargoes, journalists may not get early access in time, which could keep the game off that nominee list as well.

That said, the betting markets aren’t worried: Polymarket currently gives GTA 6 a 68% chance of winning The Game Awards’ top category, down from a brief spike near 80% in early September. And EGW notes that Polygon argues GTA 6 could still be seen as the year’s best game regardless of nominations — with GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 both sitting at 97 on Metacritic, a 95+ for GTA 6 would likely make it the year’s highest-rated release either way.

What this means

In short: one unfortunate eight-day gap has ended the most dramatic awards-season storyline before it began. GTA 6 cannot do a single-season clean sweep of the Big Five — the record set by Baldur’s Gate 3 and matched by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is out of reach.

What GTA 6 can still do is dominate everything else. It remains the overwhelming front-runner at The Game Awards, D.I.C.E., GDC and the BAFTAs next spring, and it will be fully eligible for the 45th Golden Joystick Awards in 2027. If anything, the situation is a testament to just how stacked late 2026 looks: even the year’s biggest launch isn’t the only big story in the room.

Public voting is open now through October 23, with Ultimate Game of the Year voting October 26–30. We’ll be covering the results when the ceremony airs on November 11 — eight days before Leonida opens its doors.

Sources

• GTAVice.net — Golden Joysticks 2026: And The Winner Isn’t… GTA 6
• Push Square — GTA 6 Can’t Completely Sweep This Year’s GOTY Awards Anymore
• TalkEsport — GTA 6 Can’t Break This Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur GOTY Record
• VG Times — GTA 6 may miss The Game Awards 2026 nominations due to the November 20 deadline
• ixbt.games — Golden Joystick Awards 2026 nominees announced
• EGW — GTA 6 Can’t Match Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Record for GOTY