Goryachkina was on the cusp of a 2500 rating throughout the second half of 2015 and first achieved it in January 2016 at the age of 17. She earned her third and final IM norm at the 2015 European Individual Championship for the second consecutive year with a better score of 6½/11. Although she would earn more norms over the next few years, she was never officially awarded the IM title. Goryachkina made her debut in the Women's World Chess Championship knockout event in 2015, where she was eliminated in the second round by third seed Anna Muzychuk. Two of her best results in 2015 came towards the end of the year in Russia, where she became the Russian Women's Champion and also won the Russian Cup for Women for the second time. She won the Russian Women's Championship Superfinal with a score of 8/11 (–1=4) while still 16 years old. With this performance, she also earned her first GM norm.