The British reached the final after a nerve-wracking semifinal against the reigning Olympic champions Sweden, where they turned a 0-4 deficit and beat team Hasselborg in an arbitration round.
However, no nail-biter was the final.
Japan gave up
In the seventh round, Great Britain scored four points and got a safe 8-2 lead.
After two more British points in the ninth round, Japan's skipper Satsuki Fujisawa and her teammates gave up.
- This is a dream come true.
I had previously lost two Olympic semi-finals, but I bounced back and here we are now.
We are Olympic champions, it is such a special moment, says skipper Eve Muirhead to the BBC.
The gentlemen took silver
The gold is Britain's second medal in the Beijing Olympics.
The country's curling men go home with a silver after a loss against Sweden's team Edin in the men's curling final this Saturday.
The team is coached by Swedish Kristian Lindström, who grew up in Östersund but lives in Uppsala.
As a player, he was part of Team Edin (which won the men's tournament, and took with them both the European Championships and the World Cup in 2014 and 2015.