These Five Titles That Might Rival <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 GOTY Award.

A year ago, we wondered if any title could possibly beat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025's Game of the Year honor — "aside from Rockstar's capacity to complete it on time." As it turned out, it was precisely that that removed Rockstar's blockbuster game from the race, with delays to May and, later, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's unprecedented dominance at The 2025 Game Awards.

Consequently, peering into the future to GOTY 2026, we are left with a strong sense of repetition. Yet again, GTA 6 begins the year as the presumptive frontrunner to secure the highest honor. Again, Rockstar's greatest enemy might be its own timeliness. Although another postponement at this juncture is more improbable, it's certainly still possible, and with its announced Nov. 19 release date barely making into The Game Awards' usual eligibility window, it would require just a slip of 48 hours or more to relegate GTA 6 into the running for the 2027 awards.

For a third time, GTA 6 looks incredibly difficult to beat, but not entirely insurmountable. 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 eclipsed in the majority of awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — if not the Game Awards' forerunner, VGX — by The Last of Us. Paradoxically, GTA 6's behemoth status is a seemingly contradictory kind of liability, as reviewers and awards panels will be eagerly seeking out an attractive alternative angle to latch onto in order to maintain suspense.

So what different titles might pose a challenge? Forecasting nominees this so soon in the year is, frankly, a something of a fool's errand: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is largely unclear, while AAA games often get pushed back or don't pan out, and certain publishers (such as Nintendo) have not yet unveil their titles for the second half of the year. However, there are at present a handful of 2026 releases that look like they will be strong contenders. Below are five that have a strong chance of being nominated together with GTA 6.

1. Control: Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's surreal follow-up is easily the most potent challenger to GTA 6's supremacy. Indeed, Remedy could be the ideal Game Awards studio: It creates expertly engineered, aesthetically stunning, story-rich action-adventure games while working just far enough outside the industry mainstream to still be perceived as an underdog. 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, transforming three of its eight nominations into wins in the highly sought-after Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a spectacular trailer unveiling at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being underestimated.

2. Resident Evil Requiem

A fresh (or, similarly) remastered Resident Evil game is more likely to be nominated for Game of the Year than to miss out. This long-running series has an excellent recent track record at The Game Awards — Resident Evil 2 was nominated for the top honor in 2019, Village in 2021, and 4 in 2023 — in addition to a well-earned reputation for consistent quality. It must be said, a win would be a much more unlikely proposition, but you can bet on Capcom ending up in contention.

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, probably one of the handful that will be able to give GTA 6 a serious competition. Like Resident Evil, Insomniac's high-octane Marvel games project is prolific at garnering lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and less good at converting them into wins. Will the move from Spider-Man to an edgier character and (significantly) more brutal action alter the dynamic in Wolverine's favor? Maybe, and it will be Sony's flagship contender for the year, which pretty much guarantees it a place at the main event.

4. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

Nintendo is seldom absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. Lacking a clear idea of what its holiday 2026 game will be (a new flagship Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both options), Fortune’s Weave makes a compelling placeholder. Fire Emblem is a cult series, it's true, but it has been expanding consistently in both popularity and acclaim over the past few years, while its complex anime storytelling style and strategic combat get more mainstream and closer to the gaming center by the day. It wouldn't be a shock.

5. Dawnwalker's Blood

The increasingly influential European voting bloc on the jury is more and more making its influence felt, particularly when it comes to nominating epic, sprawling Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' first game is an prime game to capture those votes and occupy this slot, notably 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 lacks an indie contender. While The Game Awards jury typically only nominates one indie game for Game of the Year — 2025's trio of indie picks appears to be a anomaly — it also hardly ever fails to nominate one. It's almost impossible to guess what that game might be at this point, as the biggest indie games of each year often appear from nowhere, but a few likely candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a rhythm-based, sentimental road trip of a game backed by the tastemakers at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a much-anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a lavishly detailed pixel-art visual style.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' secretive follow-up to the Amnesia series (provided it's not too scary).
• Slay the Spire 2: sequel to the immensely 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 (if the studio can manage to finish it).

Additional Challengers

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