The 5 Games That May Contend With <em>GTA 6</em> for the 2026 GOTY Prize.

Last year, we wondered if any title could potentially outshine Grand Theft Auto 6 for the 2025's Game of the Year award — "except for Rockstar's capacity to ship it on time." As it turned out, it was precisely that that excluded Rockstar's blockbuster game from the equation, with pushbacks to May and, subsequently, November 2026 paving the way for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's unprecedented dominance at The 2025 Game Awards.

Consequently, gazing forward to GOTY 2026, we are left with a powerful sense of familiarity. Once again, GTA 6 kicks off the year as the obvious frontrunner to claim the highest honor. Similarly, Rockstar's biggest challenge could be its own schedule. Although another setback at this stage is more improbable, it's certainly still plausible, and with its announced Nov. 19 release date only narrowly fitting into The Game Awards' usual eligibility window, it would only take a slip of 48 hours or more to send GTA 6 into contention for the 2027 awards.

Yet again, GTA 6 looks extremely tough to overcome, but not entirely impossible. Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption 2 was surpassed 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 colossal status is a paradoxical kind of vulnerability, as reviewers and awards panels will be keenly seeking out an compelling alternative storyline to champion in order to prevent a foregone conclusion.

So what alternative releases may be in contention? Attempting to predict nominees this so soon in the year is, frankly, a bit of a speculative endeavor: the landscape of indie and smaller releases is mostly murky, while larger games commonly get postponed or underwhelm, and some publishers (such as Nintendo) have still not reveal their lineup for the latter part of the year. However, there are even now a handful of 2026 releases that seem 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 without a doubt the strongest challenger to GTA 6's hegemony. Indeed, Remedy might be the quintessential Game Awards studio: It produces expertly engineered, graphically impressive, narratively sophisticated action-adventure games while working just sufficiently 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 close second in 2023, converting three of its eight nominations into wins in the coveted Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction categories. After a spectacular trailer debut at the 2025 Awards, Control Resonant is never to be underestimated.

2. Resident Evil: Requiem

A fresh (or, for that matter) remastered Resident Evil game is has a higher probability to be nominated for Game of the Year than not. This venerable series has an sterling recent history 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 reliable quality. Granted, a win would be a considerably more unlikely proposition, but you can bet on Capcom ending up in the conversation.

3. Wolverine (Marvel)

The Wolverine game from Insomniac is one of the biggest commercial prospects of the year, and in terms of production cost and polish, almost certainly one of the handful that will be able to give GTA 6 a run for its money. In the vein of Resident Evil, Insomniac's polished Marvel games franchise is prolific at picking up lots of nominations at The Game Awards, and weaker at transforming them into wins. Will the shift from Spider-Man to an darker character and (much) more brutal action change things in Wolverine's favor? Perhaps, and it will be Sony's primary contender for the year, which pretty much ensures it a spot at the main event.

4. Fortune's Weave (Fire Emblem)

Nintendo is rarely absent from the list of Game of the Year nominees. Without a obvious idea of what its major 2026 game will be (a new flagship Pokémon and a 3D Mario game are both options), Fortune’s Weave makes a strong placeholder. Fire Emblem is a cult series, it's true, but it has been expanding consistently in both fanbase and critical reputation over the past few years, while its detailed anime storytelling style and tactical combat get more popular and closer to the gaming establishment by the day. It would not be a surprise.

5. Dawnwalker's Blood

The expanding European voting group on the jury is increasingly making its influence felt, notably when it comes to nominating large-scale, ambitious Euro role-playing games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Rebel Wolves' debut is an ideal game to capture those votes and secure this slot, especially given the Witcher 3 heritage of its developers — and its striking similarity to that 2015 GOTY winner.

What About the Indies?

The glaring omission in our list is that it omits an indie contender. While The Game Awards jury usually only nominates one indie game for Game of the Year — 2025's three of indie picks appears to be 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 breakout indie games of each year often emerge unexpectedly, but a few potential candidates would be:

• Mixtape: a music-driven, nostalgic road trip of a game backed by the tastemakers at Annapurna Interactive.
• Replaced: a long-awaited cyberpunk adventure with a lavishly detailed pixel-art visual style.
• Ontos: Frictional Games' mysterious follow-up to the Amnesia series (assuming it's not too scary).
• Slay the Spire 2: follow-up 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 next project, an enchanting-looking retro Zelda homage (assuming the studio can succeed in finish it).

Additional Challengers

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