The 5 Games That Might Contend With <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 Game of the Year Title.

Last year, we pondered if any release could possibly defeat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025's Game of the Year crown — "aside from Rockstar's capacity to complete it on time." In the end, it was precisely that that took Rockstar's blockbuster game from the race, with delays to May and, later, 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 are situated with a powerful sense of familiarity. Once again, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the presumptive top contender to win the top award. Similarly, Rockstar's biggest adversary might be its own schedule. Even though another postponement at this stage is less likely, it's certainly still conceivable, and with its present Nov. 19 release date only narrowly fitting into The Game Awards' standard eligibility window, it would only take a slide of 48 hours or more to push GTA 6 into competition for the 2027 awards.

Once more, GTA 6 seems incredibly difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption 2 was beaten for GOTY by Sony Santa Monica's God of War in 2018, while GTA 5 was overshadowed in most awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — except perhaps at the Game Awards' earlier incarnation, VGX — by The Last of Us. Paradoxically, GTA 6's colossal status is a seemingly contradictory kind of liability, as reviewers and awards committees will be keenly searching for an attractive alternative narrative to embrace in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what other releases may stand a chance? Predicting nominees this early in the year is, admittedly, a rather a speculative endeavor: the ecosystem of indie and smaller releases is largely uncertain, while larger games commonly get postponed or underwhelm, and some publishers (including Nintendo) have not yet announce their lineup for the second half of the year. However, there are even now a select few of 2026 releases that appear to be they will be formidable contenders. Listed are five that have a strong chance of being nominated next to GTA 6.

1. Control Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's mind-bending second installment is without a doubt the top challenger to GTA 6's dominance. Truly, Remedy might be the quintessential Game Awards studio: It crafts technically accomplished, visually striking, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while functioning just far enough outside the industry establishment to still be perceived as an underdog. The original Control secured 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 nominations into wins in the highly sought-after Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a spectacular trailer reveal at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being overlooked.

2. Resident Evil: Requiem

A new (or, for that matter) remade Resident Evil game is more likely to be nominated for Game of the Year than not. This iconic 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 standing for consistent quality. Admittedly, a win would be a considerably more unlikely proposition, but you can rely on Capcom finding itself in the mix.

3. Marvel's Wolverine

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the most significant sales prospects of the year, and in terms of production cost and polish, likely one of the few that will be able to give GTA 6 a serious competition. In the vein of Resident Evil, Insomniac's polished Marvel games series is great 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 favour? Maybe, and it will be Sony's flagship contender for the year, which more or less guarantees 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. Lacking a obvious idea of what its big 2026 game will be (a new flagship Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both options), Fortune’s Weave makes a viable placeholder. Fire Emblem is a niche series, it's true, but it has been growing gradually in both fanbase and regard over the past few years, while its involved anime storytelling style and tactical combat get more fashionable and closer to the gaming center by the day. It wouldn't be a revelation.

5. Blood of the Dawnwalker

The increasingly influential European voting group on the jury is increasingly 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 fill this slot, notably given the Witcher 3 heritage of its developers — and its strong similarity to that 2015 GOTY winner.

Concerning the Indies?

The obvious gap 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 hardly ever fails to nominate one. It's virtually impossible to guess what that game might be at this point, as the breakout indie games of each year often appear from nowhere, but a few probable candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a rhythm-based, sentimental road trip of a game backed by the curators at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a much-anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a beautifully detailed pixel-art visual style.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' enigmatic 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 might not make it out of early access in 2026).
• Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight successor, an whimsical retro Zelda love letter (provided that the studio can manage to finish it).

Additional Challengers

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