These Five Games That Might Rival <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026's GOTY Title.

The previous year, we questioned if anything could possibly defeat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025's Game of the Year honor — "barring Rockstar's capacity to complete it on time." In the end, it was precisely that that took Rockstar's blockbuster game from the equation, with postponements to May and, later, November 2026 clearing the path 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 déjà vu. Once again, GTA 6 begins the year as the clear frontrunner to win the top award. Again, Rockstar's biggest challenge could be its own punctuality. Although another postponement at this juncture is less likely, it's definitely still plausible, and with its present Nov. 19 release date just squeaking into The Game Awards' usual eligibility window, it would require just a slide of a couple of days or more to send GTA 6 into contention for the 2027 awards.

For a third time, GTA 6 looks remarkably tough to overcome, but not entirely unbeatable. 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' earlier incarnation, VGX — by The Last of Us. If anything, GTA 6's behemoth status is a ironic kind of vulnerability, as critics and awards juries will be keenly searching for an compelling alternative narrative to embrace in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what different titles could stand a chance? Attempting to predict nominees this so soon in the year is, frankly, a something of a speculative endeavor: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is largely uncertain, while bigger games commonly get pushed back or don't pan out, and some publishers (such as Nintendo) have yet to unveil their games for the latter part of the year. Still, there are even now a handful of 2026 releases that look like they will be formidable contenders. Listed are five that have a solid chance of being shortlisted next to GTA 6.

1. Control Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's surreal sequel is easily the top challenger to GTA 6's supremacy. In fact, Remedy might be the ideal Game Awards studio: It produces expertly engineered, graphically impressive, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while operating just far enough outside the industry center to still feel like an dark horse. The original Control garnered eight nominations and one win in 2019, while Alan Wake 2 ran Baldur's Gate 3 a tight second in 2023, transforming three of its eight nods into wins in the prestigious Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a breathtaking trailer debut at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being overlooked.

2. Requiem: Resident Evil

A latest (or, similarly) remade Resident Evil game is stands a better chance to be nominated for Game of the Year than to be absent. This venerable series has an excellent recent record at The Game Awards — Resident Evil 2 was nominated for the top honor in 2019, Village in 2021, and 4 in 2023 — coupled with a well-earned reputation for dependable quality. Admittedly, a win would be a considerably more unlikely proposition, but you can bet on Capcom finding itself 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 production values, likely one of the select group that will be able to give GTA 6 a serious competition. Similar to Resident Evil, Insomniac's slick Marvel games series is great at accumulating lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and less good at converting them into wins. Will the transition from Spider-Man to an more mature character and (much) more brutal action change things in Wolverine's favor? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's top contender for the year, which more or less secures it a place at the GOTY discussion.

4. Fortune's Weave (Fire Emblem)

Nintendo is infrequently absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. Without a obvious idea of what its holiday 2026 game will be (a new core Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both options), Fortune’s Weave makes a strong placeholder. Fire Emblem is a niche series, it's true, but it has been growing steadily in both popularity and critical reputation over the past few years, while its complex anime storytelling style and turn-based combat get more mainstream and closer to the gaming center by the day. It would not be a revelation.

5. Dawnwalker's Blood

The expanding European voting bloc on the jury is more and more making its presence felt, particularly when it comes to nominating epic, sprawling Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' first game is an perfect game to attract those votes and occupy this slot, particularly given the Witcher 3 heritage of its developers — and its striking similarity to that 2015 GOTY winner.

Concerning the Indies?

The flaw 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 appears to be a anomaly — it also hardly ever fails to nominate one. It's virtually impossible to foresee what that game might be at this point, as the biggest indie games of each year often appear from nowhere, but a few potential candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a music-centric, nostalgic road trip of a game supported by the tastemakers at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a highly anticipated cyberpunk adventure with a beautifully detailed pixel-art look.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' mysterious follow-up to the Amnesia series (if it's not overly horrifying).
• 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 successor, an charming retro Zelda homage (provided that the studio can succeed in finish it).

Further Challengers

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