The Five Games That Could Challenge <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026's GOTY Award.

A year ago, we wondered if any title could possibly outshine Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025's Game of the Year crown — "barring Rockstar's ability to finish it on time." Ultimately, it was that very factor that removed Rockstar's highly-anticipated game from the race, with delays to May and, afterwards, November 2026 clearing the path for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's remarkable clean sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.

As a result, looking ahead to GOTY 2026, we find ourselves with a strong sense of déjà vu. For a second time, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the presumptive frontrunner to win the highest honor. Again, Rockstar's greatest challenge might be its own punctuality. While another delay at this point is less likely, it's certainly still plausible, and with its present Nov. 19 release date barely making into The Game Awards' standard eligibility window, it would need merely a slip of two days or more to send GTA 6 into competition for the 2027 awards.

For a third time, GTA 6 appears extremely difficult to defeat, but far from unbeatable. 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 the majority of awards ceremonies and GOTY votes — if not the Game Awards' forerunner, VGX — by The Last of Us. Paradoxically, GTA 6's juggernaut status is a paradoxical kind of liability, as journalists and awards committees will be eagerly searching for an attractive alternative narrative to champion in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what different releases could stand a chance? Predicting nominees this early in the year is, frankly, a rather a risky business: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is very unclear, while AAA games commonly get postponed or underwhelm, and some publishers (like Nintendo) have still not announce their lineup for the latter part of the year. Still, there are already a small group of 2026 releases that look like they will be formidable contenders. Below are five that possess a good chance of being selected next to GTA 6.

1. Resonant Control

Remedy Entertainment's surreal sequel is arguably the strongest challenger to GTA 6's supremacy. In fact, Remedy may well be the ideal Game Awards studio: It creates expertly engineered, graphically impressive, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while working just far enough outside the industry center to still be perceived as an dark horse. The original Control garnered eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 ran Baldur's Gate 3 a very near 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 unveiling at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being underestimated.

2. Resident Evil Requiem

A new (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 outstanding recent history at The Game Awards — Resident Evil 2 was nominated for the top honor in 2019, Village in 2021, and 4 in 2023 — plus a well-earned reputation for consistent quality. It must be said, a win would be a far more improbable proposition, but you can count on Capcom finding itself in the mix.

3. Marvel’s Wolverine

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the largest sales prospects of the year, and in terms of budget and polish, probably one of the few that will be able to give GTA 6 a close contest. Similar to Resident Evil, Insomniac's high-octane Marvel games franchise is great at garnering lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and not as successful at turning them into wins. Will the move from Spider-Man to an edgier character and (significantly) more visceral action change things in Wolverine's favour? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's primary contender for the year, which more or less secures it a seat at the GOTY discussion.

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 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 growing gradually in both popularity and critical reputation over the past few years, while its complex anime storytelling style and turn-based combat get more fashionable and closer to the gaming establishment by the day. It wouldn't be a shock.

5. Blood of the Dawnwalker

The ever-growing European voting contingent on the jury is more and more making its weight felt, especially 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 attract those votes and fill this slot, especially given the Witcher 3 pedigree of its developers — and its striking resemblance to that 2015 GOTY winner.

What About the Indies?

The obvious gap in our list is that it lacks an indie contender. While The Game Awards jury generally only nominates one indie game for Game of the Year — 2025's three of indie picks seems like a exception — it also rarely 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 come out of the blue, but a few potential candidates would be:

Mixtape: a music-centric, sentimental road trip of a game backed by the tastemakers at Annapurna Interactive.
Replaced: a highly anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a exquisitely detailed pixel-art visual style.
Ontos: Frictional Games' enigmatic follow-up to the Amnesia series (provided it's not excessively frightening).
Slay the Spire 2: follow-up to the hugely popular roguelike deckbuilder (but it might not make it out of early access in 2026).
Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight next project, an charming retro Zelda love letter (assuming 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 prove that this decidedly 2000s series is still meaningful.
Fable: After