The 5 Titles That May Rival <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 Top Honor Title.

The previous year, we wondered if any title 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." Ultimately, it was precisely that that removed Rockstar's highly-anticipated game from the race, with pushbacks to May and, subsequently, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's historic sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.

As a result, peering into the future to GOTY 2026, we are situated with a powerful sense of familiarity. Once again, GTA 6 begins the year as the presumptive frontrunner to secure the highest honor. Again, Rockstar's biggest enemy may prove to be its own schedule. Even though another postponement at this point is not as probable, it's undoubtedly still plausible, and with its present Nov. 19 release date barely making into The Game Awards' standard eligibility window, it would need merely a delay of a couple of days or more to push GTA 6 into competition for the 2027 awards.

For a third time, GTA 6 seems remarkably tough to defeat, 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 outshone in numerous awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — if not the Game Awards' forerunner, VGX — by The Last of Us. If anything, GTA 6's juggernaut status is a paradoxical kind of vulnerability, as journalists and awards panels will be eagerly seeking out an compelling alternative narrative to embrace in order to keep things interesting.

So what other titles could pose a challenge? Predicting nominees this far in advance in the year is, to be honest, a rather a speculative endeavor: the terrain of indie and smaller releases is very uncertain, while AAA games often get pushed back or don't pan out, and some publishers (like Nintendo) have yet to reveal their games for the second half of the year. Nevertheless, there are already a handful of 2026 releases that appear to be they will be serious contenders. Here are five that stand a strong chance of being shortlisted alongside GTA 6.

1. Control: Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's psychologically thrilling sequel is without a doubt the top challenger to GTA 6's supremacy. Truly, Remedy may well be the perfect Game Awards studio: It produces technically accomplished, visually striking, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while functioning just sufficiently outside the industry center to still retain the aura of an dark horse. The original Control garnered eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 pushed Baldur's Gate 3 a tight second in 2023, turning three of its eight selections into wins in the coveted Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a breathtaking trailer debut at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is not to be underestimated.

2. Requiem: Resident Evil

A latest (or, similarly) reimagined Resident Evil game is stands a better chance to be nominated for Game of the Year than to miss out. This long-running series has an outstanding 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 — plus a standing for dependable quality. Admittedly, a win would be a far more far-fetched proposition, but you can rely on Capcom being in the mix.

3. Marvel’s Wolverine

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the biggest sales prospects of the year, and in terms of budget and polish, probably one of the select group that will be able to give GTA 6 a close contest. In the vein of Resident Evil, Insomniac's slick Marvel games project is excellent at accumulating lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and less good at transforming them into wins. Will the move from Spider-Man to an edgier character and (much) more brutal action shift the odds in Wolverine's benefit? Possibly, and it will be Sony's flagship contender for the year, which virtually ensures it a spot at the GOTY discussion.

4. Fortune's Weave (Fire Emblem)

Nintendo is infrequently 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 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 building steadily in both fanbase and acclaim over the past few years, while its complex anime storytelling style and tactical combat get more mainstream and closer to the gaming mainstream by the day. It wouldn't be a surprise.

5. The Blood of Dawnwalker

The increasingly influential European voting bloc on the jury is steadily making its presence 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 capture those votes and fill this slot, especially given the Witcher 3 lineage of its developers — and its strong similarity to that 2015 GOTY winner.

Concerning the Indies?

The obvious gap in our list is that it lacks an indie contender. While The Game Awards jury usually only nominates one indie game for Game of the Year — 2025's trio of indie picks looks like a fluke — it also seldom fails to nominate one. It's virtually impossible to foresee what that game might be at this point, as the most successful indie games of each year often appear from nowhere, but a few likely candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a rhythm-based, retro road trip of a game published by the influential publishers at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a long-awaited cyberpunk adventure with a beautifully detailed pixel-art aesthetic.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' mysterious follow-up to the Amnesia series (assuming it's not excessively frightening).
• Slay the Spire 2: sequel to the hugely popular roguelike deckbuilder (but it could fail to make it out of early access in 2026).
• Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight follow-up, an whimsical retro Zelda love letter (if the studio can finally finish it).

Further Challengers

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