These Five Releases That May Challenge <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026's GOTY Prize.

Last year, we pondered if any release could potentially defeat Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025 Game of the Year award — "aside from Rockstar's capability to ship it on target." In the end, it was precisely that that removed Rockstar's highly-anticipated game from the race, with postponements to May and, subsequently, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's remarkable clean sweep at The 2025 Game Awards.

As a result, looking ahead to GOTY 2026, we are situated with a distinct sense of familiarity. Yet again, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the obvious frontrunner to claim the top award. Similarly, Rockstar's biggest enemy could be its own schedule. Although another delay at this stage is not as probable, it's definitely still conceivable, and with its current Nov. 19 release date just squeaking into The Game Awards' usual eligibility window, it would need merely a slide of a couple of days or more to relegate GTA 6 into contention for the 2027 awards.

Yet again, GTA 6 appears extremely tough to overcome, but not entirely insurmountable. 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' predecessor, VGX — by The Last of Us. In fact, GTA 6's colossal status is a seemingly contradictory kind of vulnerability, as journalists and awards committees will be eagerly searching for an appealing alternative narrative to latch onto in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what different games could stand a chance? Forecasting nominees this far in advance in the year is, admittedly, a something of a risky business: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is very unclear, while bigger games frequently get postponed or fail to meet expectations, and certain publishers (such as Nintendo) have yet to announce their lineup for the latter part of the year. However, there are even now a small group of 2026 releases that look like they will be strong contenders. Here are five that possess a solid chance of being shortlisted together with GTA 6.

1. Control Resonant

Remedy Entertainment's surreal follow-up is easily the strongest challenger to GTA 6's hegemony. Truly, Remedy may well be the perfect Game Awards studio: It produces expertly engineered, aesthetically stunning, story-rich action-adventure games while working just far enough 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 ran Baldur's Gate 3 a close second in 2023, transforming three of its eight nods into wins in the prestigious Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a spectacular trailer reveal at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is far from being dismissed.

2. Resident Evil: Requiem

A fresh (or, similarly) remade Resident Evil game is has a higher probability to be nominated for Game of the Year than to be absent. This iconic series has an sterling recent track record at The Game Awards — Resident Evil 2 was nominated for the highest award in 2019, Village in 2021, and 4 in 2023 — coupled with a reputation for consistent quality. It must be said, a win would be a far more improbable proposition, but you can rely on Capcom ending up in the conversation.

3. Marvel’s Wolverine

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the most significant blockbuster prospects of the year, and in terms of production cost and production values, likely one of the handful that will be able to give GTA 6 a close contest. Like 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 converting them into wins. Will the shift from Spider-Man to an more mature character and (much) more brutal action change things in Wolverine's favour? Maybe, and it will be Sony's flagship contender for the year, which pretty much secures it a place at the main event.

4. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

Nintendo is rarely absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. Without a obvious idea of what its big 2026 game will be (a new flagship Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both possibilities), 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 regard 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 would not be a shock.

5. The Blood of Dawnwalker

The ever-growing European voting group on the jury is more and more making its weight felt, particularly when it comes to nominating epic, sprawling Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' inaugural title is an prime game to attract those votes and occupy this slot, especially given the Witcher 3 heritage of its developers — and its noticeable parallels to that 2015 GOTY winner.

What About 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 group of indie picks appears to be a exception — it also rarely fails to nominate one. It's nearly impossible to predict what that game might be at this point, as the biggest indie games of each year often emerge unexpectedly, but a few likely candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a music-centric, retro road trip of a game supported by the curators at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a long-awaited cyberpunk adventure with a lavishly detailed pixel-art visual style.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' enigmatic follow-up to the Amnesia series (if it's not excessively frightening).
• Slay the Spire 2: follow-up to the wildly 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 charming retro Zelda tribute (assuming the studio can succeed in finish it).

Additional Challengers

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