Valorant wins Best Streaming Game Award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023
The free-to-play multiplayer shooter is still coming out top
Valorant has won the Best Streaming Game Award at this year's Golden Joystick Awards powered by Intel.
Unlike the majority of the awards at the Golden Joysticks which are voted for by our readers and the gaming public at large, Best Streaming Game is a critically voted award. What that means is that Valorant was chosen from all the other top streaming titles by a panel of critics from 12DOVE, PCGamer, Future Game Show, Edge Magazine, Retro Gamer, and Play magazine.
Valorant launched back in 2020 to critical acclaim, but it's gone from strength to strength since then, and has continued to thrive in the past 12 months. It's a huge game in the esports and competitive communities, regularly dominating the popular Highlight Reel show from Chris Person, and holding firm towards the top of the Twitch charts.
The free-to-play FPS has always been pitched as Riot's answer to CS:GO - and now has even more competition from Valve's Counter-Strike 2 that launched just a few months ago - but its offering of heroes with unique abilities also makes it stand out from Valve's shooters,
Valorant has always been praised for its twitchy gameplay, but equally, its inclusivity thanks to its ping system making way for those who don't use voice chat. The community is also applauded for being approachable too, which is refreshing for the internet.
If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can download Valorant yourself now for free on PC.
Check out the rest of the Golden Joysticks 2023 award categories and nominees.
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Sam Loveridge is the Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar, and joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.