You might think Grand Theft Auto 6 is the only upcoming game that anyone is thinking about. However, it came incredibly close to losing out on the Most Wanted award at the Golden Joysticks to The Witcher 4.
The Golden Joysticks was one of the first to hand out its awards for 2025, unsurprisingly crowning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 the Ultimate Game of the Year. Also unsurprisingly, GTA 6 took home the award for the Most Wanted game, although it was much more of a close run thing than the GOTY vote, which Expedition 33 won by a landslide.
The Witcher 4 Almost Stole The Golden Joysticks Most Wanted Award From GTA 6
More than 21 million people voted across 22 categories to determine the winners of this year’s Golden Joysticks awards, and a breakdown of how those votes were cast across every category has now been shared. Most would have expected GTA 6 to have won by an ungodly amount, but with just 18.03 percent of the vote, it only managed to squeak past The Witcher 4.
CD Projekt Red’s Wild Hunt follow-up is even more anticipated than anyone could have imagined based on the votes cast for this particular award. 16.68 percent of the vote for the Ciri-led sequel, meaning it lost out to the Rockstar juggernaut by less than two percent.
GTA 6 Now Has Something Else In Common With Cyberpunk 2077 – They Both Won “Most Wanted” Game At The Golden Joystick Awards Twice In A Row
GTA 6, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Witcher 3 are the only games to pull off this feat.
Between GTA 5 continuing to sell five million copies every quarter – it’s now up to 220 million sold in total – and the chaos surrounding its most recent delay, you’d have thought no announced game would even come close to GTA 6 in a vote like this. Particularly when we have seen very little of The Witcher 4 and, unlike GTA 6, CDPR’s next big release doesn’t even have a release date.
There’s More Than Just GTA 6 On The Triple-A Horizon
But apparently, even without a release date, and CDPR’s current development activity suggesting we won’t be getting the next Witcher game until at least 2027, people already can’t wait for it to be here. It’s also a strong sign that, even though every studio in the world is ready to jump out of the way whenever GTA 6 moves its release date, it might not use up all of the oxygen in the room when it finally drops.
As you can see from the graphic, GTA 6 and The Witcher 4 were close enough that I think it’s almost fair to consider the hype levels for them relatively equal. Certainly so when you compare them to the third Most Wanted game at the Golden Joysticks, Resident Evil Requiem, which racked up less than half of The Witcher 4’s total. Maybe if Capcom confirms whether Leon is going to be in the game or not, that hype level will start to rise.
