These Five Releases That May Rival <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 Game of the Year Award.

The previous year, we pondered if any release could possibly beat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025 Game of the Year crown — "aside from Rockstar's capacity to complete it on time." Ultimately, it was that very factor that excluded Rockstar's much-hyped game from the running, with delays to May and, later, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's historic sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.

Consequently, peering into the future to GOTY 2026, we are left with a distinct sense of familiarity. Once again, GTA 6 begins the year as the clear favorite to secure the top award. Again, Rockstar's primary enemy might be its own schedule. Although another delay at this point is more improbable, it's definitely still plausible, and with its present Nov. 19 release date just squeaking into The Game Awards' typical eligibility window, it would need merely a slide of 48 hours or more to relegate GTA 6 into competition for the 2027 awards.

Once more, GTA 6 appears extremely hard to overcome, but far from 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 the majority of awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — except perhaps at the Game Awards' predecessor, VGX — by The Last of Us. Paradoxically, GTA 6's behemoth status is a paradoxical kind of weakness, as reviewers and awards panels will be keenly searching for an compelling alternative storyline to champion in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what other games may pose a challenge? Predicting nominees this early in the year is, frankly, a rather a fool's errand: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is mostly murky, while AAA games commonly get postponed or fail to meet expectations, and some publishers (including Nintendo) have still not reveal their titles for the second half of the year. However, there are already a small group of 2026 releases that appear to be they will be serious contenders. Below are five that have a solid chance of being selected next to GTA 6.

1. Control Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's psychologically thrilling follow-up is easily the strongest challenger to GTA 6's supremacy. Indeed, Remedy may well be the quintessential Game Awards studio: It produces technically accomplished, visually striking, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while operating just adequately outside the industry center to still retain the aura of an outsider. The original Control earned eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 challenged Baldur's Gate 3 a tight second in 2023, turning three of its eight nods into wins in the prestigious Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a spectacular trailer debut at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being overlooked.

2. Resident Evil: Requiem

A latest (or, similarly) reimagined Resident Evil game is more likely 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 well-earned reputation for consistent quality. Admittedly, a win would be a considerably more far-fetched proposition, but you can bet on Capcom being in the mix.

3. Wolverine (Marvel)

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the most significant sales prospects of the year, and in terms of budget and production values, probably one of the select group that will be able to give GTA 6 a serious competition. Similar to Resident Evil, Insomniac's high-octane Marvel games series is excellent at picking up lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and not as successful at turning them into wins. Will the move from Spider-Man to an more mature character and (significantly) more visceral action alter the dynamic in Wolverine's favor? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's primary contender for the year, which virtually secures it a seat at the main event.

4. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

Nintendo is infrequently absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. In the absence of a definitive idea of what its holiday 2026 game will be (a new flagship Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both possibilities), Fortune’s Weave makes a strong placeholder. Fire Emblem is a specialist series, it's true, but it has been growing gradually in both appeal and critical reputation over the past few years, while its detailed anime storytelling style and strategic combat get more fashionable and closer to the gaming establishment by the day. It would not be a shock.

5. The Blood of Dawnwalker

The expanding European voting contingent on the jury is steadily making its influence felt, especially when it comes to nominating large-scale, ambitious Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' first game is an ideal game to draw those votes and occupy this slot, notably given the Witcher 3 pedigree of its developers — and its striking resemblance 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 three of indie picks looks like a fluke — it also rarely fails to nominate one. It's almost impossible to predict what that game might be at this point, as the breakout indie games of each year often appear from nowhere, but a few potential candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a music-driven, sentimental road trip of a game supported by the influential publishers at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a highly anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a exquisitely detailed pixel-art look.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' enigmatic follow-up to the Amnesia series (assuming it's not overly horrifying).
• Slay the Spire 2: follow-up to the hugely popular roguelike deckbuilder (but it may not make it out of early access in 2026).
• Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight next project, an charming retro Zelda tribute (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 prove that this very 2000s series is still pertinent.
• Fable: After