Game of the Year 2026: No Clear Contender Yet

We're officially over the halfway line for 2026, and I'm in this weird limbo where it feels like nothing has come out… but also everything has come out. Games like Mixtape and Lego Batman have emerged as breakout hits, while big-budget bangers like Crimson Desert have been unsurprising hits with gamers. However, when it comes to the Game of the Year so far, the jury is still very much out, it seems.

I polled you lovely readers earlier this month on what your current favourite is, and it seems like you've all got different ideas. In fact, 29% of you weren't happy with the choices laid out for you at all, saying that out of the nine options I gave you, your GOTY was none of them. Whether that means you don't have a GOTY locked down yet—after all, we've still got another six months of releases to go—or if a different 2026 release has dazzled you, make sure to let me know how you're feeling down in the comments.

The Top Contenders for Game of the Year 2026

As for the options I did give you, the top two games perhaps aren't all that surprising. Resident Evil Requiem takes first place right now, with 16% of you staking your GOTY claim on Grace Ashcroft and uncle Kennedy. Not too far behind was Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert with 12% of the overall vote. (Image credit: Future)

The game was arguably a little divisive at launch—a strange game of huge scale and ambition but with a slightly off-kilter execution. Pearl Abyss has been pumping tons of updates into the thing though, transforming it into an entirely different beast from the one I reviewed—but fans who've been plodding away at the game for hundreds of hours seem to love the work the developer's been doing.

After that, it's looking pretty even all the way down. 007 First Light was rather fresh when the poll was active, but 9% of you are still declaring it your GOTY. Slay the Spire 2 and Forza Horizon 6 follow closely behind with 8%, Pragmata with 7%, and Mewgenics with just 5% of the vote. It's a dead even split at the very bottom of the charts, both with 383 votes apiece: MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Midnight is the first, which is perhaps not surprising considering the genre's increasing venture into more niche territory. The one that does surprise me, however, is Bungie's Marathon sitting right alongside it.

Why Marathon Might Be a Dark Horse for GOTY

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not big on shooters (Overwatch one-trick over here) but I very well expected it to place at least a little higher. Perhaps you could argue that the extraction shooter exhaustion is very real in 2026, but our resident FPS enjoyer Morgan Park had a pretty great time with it, scoring it a whopping 90% in his Marathon review.

But what about you? If you didn't get time to vote on the poll, now's your chance to make your opinion heard. Or, as I said above, tell me which games I should be paying attention to as worthy contenders. Or, y'know, lambast me for kicking up GOTY discussions before we're anywhere near the finish line.