You know Rockstar Games is extremely busy with Grand Theft Auto 6 when no one from the studio could be bothered to show up and accept the game's most recent pair of awards.
The upcoming sequel, delayed to November 19, 2026, walked away with two major wins at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025: "The Most Wanted Game" and "The Best Game Trailer" for Trailer 2.
While winning awards is no longer unusual for Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto, what was surprising was that no one from the studio attended the ceremony. Presenters accepted the awards on Rockstar’s behalf, leading the host to joke about the idea of GTA 6 earning trophies before players have even seen more than a pair of trailers.
GTA 6 winning yet another award was just part of the story, however. According to the vote breakdown, GTA 6 held a lead of just two percent over The Witcher 4, despite the event receiving more than twenty-one million votes, as per this thread on Reddit.
The closeness of the vote shows that the entire video game industry doesn't necessarily only revolve around GTA, contrary to what others are saying.
The Golden Joysticks are one of the few award shows that rely entirely on public voting. That format gives a clearer sense of how broad gaming audiences feel rather than a panel of critics or developers. Thus, viewed from this perspective, the narrow victory feels more meaningful.
Like GTA, The Witcher is one of the strongest franchises in gaming, and it's been a long wait since the last entry.
