The Five Titles That Might Rival <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 Top Honor Award.

A year ago, we pondered if anything could potentially outshine Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025 Game of the Year honor — "barring Rockstar's capacity to finish it on time." In the end, it was that very factor that took Rockstar's highly-anticipated game from the equation, with pushbacks to May and, afterwards, November 2026 opening the door for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's historic sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.

Therefore, gazing forward to GOTY 2026, we are situated with a powerful sense of repetition. For a second time, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the presumptive favorite to claim the ultimate prize. Again, Rockstar's primary enemy could be its own punctuality. While another delay at this juncture is not as probable, it's undoubtedly still possible, and with its announced Nov. 19 release date only narrowly fitting into The Game Awards' typical eligibility window, it would require just a slip of 48 hours or more to push GTA 6 into contention for the 2027 awards.

Once more, GTA 6 looks remarkably difficult to overcome, but not entirely impossible. Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption 2 was edged out for GOTY by Sony Santa Monica's God of War in 2018, while GTA 5 was outshone in most awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — if not the Game Awards' earlier incarnation, VGX — by The Last of Us. In fact, GTA 6's colossal status is a seemingly contradictory kind of weakness, as journalists and awards juries will be actively looking for an appealing alternative storyline to champion in order to keep things interesting.

So what other titles might be in contention? Attempting to predict nominees this far in advance in the year is, admittedly, a rather a fool's errand: the ecosystem of indie and smaller releases is largely unclear, while bigger games often get postponed or don't pan out, and various publishers (such as Nintendo) have still not unveil their titles for the latter part of the year. Still, there are even now a small group of 2026 releases that seem like they will be strong contenders. Below are five that have a solid chance of being selected next to GTA 6.

1. Control: Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's mind-bending second installment is without a doubt the most potent challenger to GTA 6's dominance. Indeed, Remedy may well be the quintessential Game Awards studio: It produces expertly engineered, visually striking, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while working just adequately outside the industry mainstream to still feel like an underdog. The original Control garnered eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 challenged Baldur's Gate 3 a close second in 2023, converting three of its eight nominations into wins in the highly sought-after Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a breathtaking trailer reveal at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is not to be underestimated.

2. Resident Evil Requiem

A fresh (or even a) remade Resident Evil game is stands a better chance to be nominated for Game of the Year than to be absent. This iconic series has an excellent 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 reputation for dependable quality. Admittedly, a win would be a much more far-fetched proposition, but you can count on Capcom ending up in the conversation.

3. Wolverine (Marvel)

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the largest blockbuster prospects of the year, and in terms of budget and technical prowess, probably one of the select group that will be able to give GTA 6 a close contest. Like Resident Evil, Insomniac's slick Marvel games project is great at picking up lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and less good at turning them into wins. Will the move from Spider-Man to an more mature character and (significantly) more violent action alter the dynamic in Wolverine's favour? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's top contender for the year, which virtually ensures it a place at the main event.

4. Fire Emblem - Fortune's Weave

Nintendo is rarely absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. In the absence of a clear idea of what its big 2026 game will be (a new core Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both rumored), Fortune’s Weave makes a strong placeholder. Fire Emblem is a cult series, it's true, but it has been building steadily in both fanbase and acclaim over the past few years, while its involved anime storytelling style and strategic combat get more fashionable and closer to the gaming center by the day. It wouldn't be a shock.

5. Blood of the Dawnwalker

The expanding European voting group on the jury is more and more making its weight felt, notably when it comes to nominating large-scale, ambitious Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' first game is an perfect game to draw those votes and fill this slot, particularly given the Witcher 3 heritage of its developers — and its noticeable parallels to that 2015 GOTY winner.

And What Of the Indies?

The glaring omission in our list is that it omits 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 looks like a exception — it also rarely fails to nominate one. It's nearly impossible to guess what that game might be at this point, as the breakout indie games of each year often emerge unexpectedly, but a few likely candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a music-driven, retro road trip of a game supported by the curators at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a highly anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a lavishly detailed pixel-art look.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' mysterious follow-up to the Amnesia series (if it's not overly horrifying).
• Slay the Spire 2: sequel to the wildly popular roguelike deckbuilder (but it may not make it out of early access in 2026).
• Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight successor, an enchanting-looking retro Zelda homage (provided that the studio can finally finish it).

Further Challengers

• Gears of War: E-Day: One of two major franchise returns from Xbox Game Studios in 2026, E-Day will have to show that this quintessentially 2000s series is still pertinent.
• Fable: After