Baldur's Gate 3 is crowned PC Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023

Baldur's Gate 3 winning at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Baldur's Gate 3 has been named PC Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023 powered by Intel. 

Larian Studios' juggernaut RPG continues its win streak with another coveted accolade, rising to the top of another fiercely contested category. 

Beating off some top competition to the tippy-top spot of PC gaming, Baldur's Gate 3 is your most desired desktop delight, wowing with its choice-laden quests, endearing characters, and Dungeons & Dragons DNA. 

Here's the Golden Joystick Awards 2023 nominees list in full:

  • Baldur's Gate 3 (winner)
  • Diablo 4
  • Dave the Diver
  • Tchia
  • System Shock
  • Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

You've perhaps read our five-star Baldur's Gate 3 review before now, but it's worth quoting our writer, Senior News Editor Ali Jones, as he bills the sprawling role-player as "a new gold standard for RPGs". 

More than that, Ali says: "Baldur's Gate 3 is the most successful and authentic take on D&D in the tabletop franchise's 50-year history. Its complexity and size might be daunting for novices, but the breadth and depth of Baldur's Gate 3's world make this a once-in-a-generation achievement." 

It's hard to argue with any of that, and while Baldur's Gate 3 has its own dedicated PS5 playerbase (and is still expected to land on Xbox Series X and S before the end of the year), part of what makes this PC Game of the Year nod so fitting is the time the game spent growing in Early Access beforehand.

With just shy of three years in the pre-full launch development oven, Baldur's Gate 3 is a shining example of Early Access done right – where Larian's dedicated community itself helped shape the road to release with continuous feedback. The result is the masterpiece that exists today: a multi-award-winning game in fine form, and the Golden Joystick Awards 2023's PC Game of the Year.

Discover the best games of 2023 at the best prices by checking out the Golden Joystick Awards Steam sale page

Joe Donnelly
Contributor

Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at GamesRadar+. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.

Read more
A screenshot from the Balatro: Friends of Jimbo reveal trailer, showing a card with The Witcher's Geralt on the front.
Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke says indie poker roguelike Balatro was his 2024 GOTY, beating out Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Astro Bot, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
The key art for Baldur's Gate 3 showing dragons and the Nautilus, with Karlach standing in the foreground, weapon in hand
The Making of Baldur's Gate 3: "We really wanted to make it so that even if you don't know D&D or Baldur's Gate, you would still have exciting choices as a player"
The best Steam games to play in 2024 - Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 looking pensive with his hand on his chin
The 25 best Steam games for 2025
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot showing Astarion, a pale male elf with short curly white hair and red eyes, looking over his shoulder with a smirk on his face
As the "incredible journey" to Baldur's Gate 3 wraps up, Larian Studios has its "full attention" on its next RPG: "The story ain't over yet"
A Helldiver from Helldivers 2 stand proudly atop a pile of Terminids.
The 25 best PC games to play in 2025
Games like The Witcher 3: A cut scene during Act 2 of Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3's corporate overlord says news on the future of the RPG series is coming "in pretty short order"
Latest in RPG
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
A Dragon Age character stares out against a blue background.
BioWare makes a return to Dragon Age: The Veilguard with a surprise PC update, months after layoffs and a seemingly final patch
Baldur's Gate 3 the vampire Astarion covered in blood
Baldur’s Gate 3 Astarion actor Neil Newbon warns games industry that "AI will have deep ramifications" if not properly regulated: "I believe in experiencing life and art through human expression, not software"
Yasuke riding through a village looking for Knowledge in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows' prologue is the most gripping in franchise history, but I'm fixated on the tiny details
Naoe perched in front of a castle in Assassin's Creed Shadows
I've spent 20 hours in Assassin's Creed Shadows chasing drip and decor, and it's proving to be my biggest source of motivation in the RPG
Cabernet screenshot showing vampire protagonist Liza sucking someone's blood
Cabernet is the kind of vampire RPG I've been looking for since Masquerade Bloodlines, and I'm already plotting my next run 6 hours in
Latest in News
A screenshot from MindsEye showing a character leaning out of a car, shooting another car with a gun.
GTA veteran says the games industry needs to "get smarter" about what people actually want: "There are so many games, and I think we're starting to feel the effects"
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says