The previous year, we wondered if any release could realistically defeat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025 Game of the Year honor — "aside from Rockstar's capacity to complete it on target." As it turned out, it was precisely that that removed Rockstar's much-hyped game from the running, with pushbacks to May and, afterwards, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's remarkable clean sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.
As a result, gazing forward to GOTY 2026, we find ourselves with a strong sense of déjà vu. Once again, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the obvious frontrunner to claim the ultimate prize. Once again, Rockstar's primary adversary could be its own punctuality. While another delay at this point is less likely, it's definitely still conceivable, and with its present Nov. 19 release date barely making into The Game Awards' typical eligibility window, it would need merely a slide of 48 hours or more to send GTA 6 into the running for the 2027 awards.
For a third time, GTA 6 looks incredibly difficult to defeat, but not insurmountable. Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption 2 was surpassed for GOTY by Sony Santa Monica's God of War in 2018, while GTA 5 was overshadowed in numerous awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — except perhaps at the Game Awards' predecessor, VGX — by The Last of Us. In fact, GTA 6's juggernaut status is a paradoxical kind of weakness, as reviewers and awards committees will be eagerly searching for an compelling alternative angle to embrace in order to maintain suspense.
So what different releases could stand a chance? Predicting nominees this so soon in the year is, to be honest, a rather a risky business: the ecosystem of indie and smaller releases is mostly unclear, while AAA games commonly get delayed or don't pan out, and some publishers (like Nintendo) have not yet reveal their games for the second half of the year. Still, there are even now a small group of 2026 releases that appear to be they will be strong contenders. Here are five that stand a strong chance of being shortlisted together with GTA 6.
1. Resonant Control
Remedy Entertainment's surreal follow-up is easily the most potent challenger to GTA 6's hegemony. Truly, Remedy could be the perfect Game Awards studio: It produces technically accomplished, aesthetically stunning, complexly plotted action-adventure games while operating just sufficiently outside the industry center to still be perceived as an underdog. The original Control earned eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 ran Baldur's Gate 3 a tight second in 2023, transforming three of its eight nods into wins in the prestigious Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a stunning trailer debut at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is not to be underestimated.
2. Resident Evil: Requiem
A fresh (or even a) reimagined Resident Evil game is more likely to be nominated for Game of the Year than to miss out. This long-running series has an sterling recent track record at The Game Awards — Resident Evil 2 was nominated for the main prize in 2019, Village in 2021, and 4 in 2023 — in addition to a well-earned reputation for dependable quality. Admittedly, a win would be a considerably more improbable proposition, but you can rely on Capcom ending up in the mix.
3. Marvel's Wolverine
The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the largest blockbuster prospects of the year, and in terms of scale and technical prowess, likely one of the handful that will be able to give GTA 6 a run for its money. Like Resident Evil, Insomniac's polished Marvel games project is prolific at picking up lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and less good at converting them into wins. Will the shift from Spider-Man to an more mature character and (significantly) more visceral action shift the odds in Wolverine's favor? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's primary contender for the year, which virtually secures it a spot at the main event.
4. Fire Emblem - Fortune's Weave
Nintendo is rarely absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. Without a obvious idea of what its holiday 2026 game will be (a new core Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both rumored), Fortune’s Weave makes a viable placeholder. Fire Emblem is a niche series, it's true, but it has been growing consistently in both popularity and critical reputation over the past few years, while its detailed anime storytelling style and strategic combat get more mainstream and closer to the gaming establishment by the day. It wouldn't be a surprise.
5. Blood of the Dawnwalker
The ever-growing European voting bloc on the jury is steadily making its weight felt, particularly when it comes to nominating big, ambitious Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' first game is an prime game to draw those votes and occupy this slot, especially given the Witcher 3 lineage of its developers — and its noticeable parallels to that 2015 GOTY winner.
What About the Indies?
The glaring omission in our list is that it lacks an indie contender. While The Game Awards jury typically only nominates one indie game for Game of the Year — 2025's group of indie picks appears to be a anomaly — it also rarely fails to nominate one. It's almost impossible to predict what that game might be at this point, as the biggest indie games of each year often come out of the blue, but a few probable candidates would be:
- Mixtape: a rhythm-based, sentimental road trip of a game published by the curators at Annapurna Interactive.
- Replaced: a highly anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a lavishly detailed pixel-art aesthetic.
- Ontos: Frictional Games' enigmatic follow-up to the Amnesia series (if it's not overly horrifying).
- Slay the Spire 2: sequel to the immensely popular roguelike deckbuilder (but it could fail to make it out of early access in 2026).
- Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight next project, an enchanting-looking retro Zelda homage (provided that the studio can finally finish it).
Additional Challengers
- Gears of War: E-Day: One of two major franchise reboots from Xbox Game Studios in 2026, E-Day will have to show that this decidedly 2000s series is still relevant.
- Fable: After
