It may only be January, but I say it’s never too early to look towards the future and try to predict what the best games of 2026 will end up being. I don’t have a crystal ball or some sort of undiagnosed superpower, but I do have a long list of all the games coming out over the next 12 months and a modicum of taste to guide me, though.
Of course, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 secured a pretty convincing sweep of wins during the end-of-year 2025 awards, but who truthfully saw that coming before its April release date? So, what could surprise us this year? And will a left-field project have what it takes to steal this year’s IGN Best Game award away from the very obvious contender we can see coming from a mile off? Let’s take a look ahead and try to predict what will be the 2026 game of the year, fully aware that whatever’s here has a not-insignificant chance of being proven completely wrong, and you can all come back here in December and tell me what an idiot I am.
GTA 6
The quite enormous elephant in the room is, obviously, Grand Theft Auto 6. But no GTA game, or, for that matter, no Rockstar game, has ever won IGN’s overall game of the year prize. That includes all of those PS2 classics from Vice City to San Andreas, and more recent creations, such as 2013’s GTA 5, which lost out to The Last of Us, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (my favourite game of all time), which got edged out in 2018 by God of War. Sadly for me, the vote doesn’t all come down to my opinion, so I guess I’ll just have to get over it. One day.
So, does GTA 6 have a shot at taking home our biggest prize? Obviously, it does. It’s arguably the most anticipated game of all time, a feat achieved by Rockstar’s recent trend of receiving 10 out of 10 review scores, and we expect (or at least hope) the studio builds upon those successes with whatever it releases this November. If Rockstar can avoid implementing a delay yet again, we won’t have to wait too long after that release date to see if the IGN staff (and the voters behind other award ceremonies) determine it as the greatest game of 2026.
Chances: Could Rock, and also take the Star prize.
Resident Evil Requiem
Similarly, Resident Evil is another series that has never won IGN’s game of the year. It did come very close to doing so, though, when the Resident Evil 2 remake narrowly missed out on the 2019 award, coming in as our runner-up to Remedy’s Control. The soonest to release on this list of contenders, Resident Evil Requiem could have a shot at winning this year, though, if it fulfills the promise of its many teaser trailers. Combining the classic third-person action-horror magic of the likes of Resident Evil 4 with the more modern first-person scares from the likes of Village could prove a perfect cocktail to suit everyone’s tastes. We’ll find out just how good it is when it comes out on February 27, but then face a 10-month wait to see if anything rises above it for the rest of 2026.
Chances: Scarier things have happened.
Control Resonant
Speaking of the 2019 awards, could Control go back-to-back on game of the year wins when its sequel, Control Resonant, arrives this year? You can always bank on something interesting coming from Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment, and it doesn’t look like it’s resting on its laurels either, with the follow-up to Jesse Faden’s supernatural-powered action-adventure mixing things up quite a bit by putting us in control of her brother in a wide-open Manhattan. A switch to melee-focused combat certainly has us excited, as does a story that looks deeply rooted in the events of Alan Wake 2, as Remedy continues to build out its connected universe, but will it be enough to secure another game of the year win?
Chances: Could be just the Remedy needed after FBC: Firebreak.
Marvel’s Wolverine
Insomniac has delivered consistently amazing games, but the studio has never quite secured one of our overall game of the year awards. Both Marvel’s Spider-Man games made the shortlist in their respective years, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart also impressed in 2021, but will the angriest of the X-Men have a better chance? Yes, while it doesn’t yet have a release date locked in, Marvel’s Wolverine is the Sony studio’s project for 2026, and it looks highly impressive from the little we’ve seen so far. It’s actually been a whole eight years since a PlayStation exclusive won the IGN game of the year award, so could Wolverine be set to claw back that record?
Chances: We wouldn’t lose sleep if Insomniac came out on top.
Saros
Sony will have more than one opportunity this year, though, as Saros arrives in April. Housemarque’s follow-up to its critically acclaimed looper shooter, Returnal, hopes are definitely high for this PS5 exclusive. Returnal made our shortlist back in 2021, but ultimately lost out to Xbox, exclusive (at the time, anyway) Forza Horizon 5. If Saros displays the exquisite shooter design skills that Housemarque has honed throughout Super Stardust, Resogun, and many more over the years, as well as a thrilling story and engaging world, then it may well have the juice to claim the number one spot in 2026.
Chances: The House(marque) always wins, but will it here?
Fable
It may have won our award back in 2021, but Playground Games certainly won’t be resting on its laurels when it comes to Fable. A reboot of the long-dormant RPG series originally developed by Lionhead Studios, the Forza Horizon developer will be taking on an entirely different type of open world in this fairy tale-infused universe. Could it be the best game of 2026, though? Well, fantasy RPGs have traditionally done very well when it comes to game of the year, with Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Elden Ring, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and, of course, most recently, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 all winning the IGN vote since 2014. That track record bodes well for Playground, and we can’t wait to see its take on Fable at the upcoming Xbox Developer Direct.
Chances: Would be a Fairy Tale ending to Fable’s development.
007 First Light
There’s no doubt that IO Interactive knows how to make a fantastic assassin game, but how about spies? Well, we’ll find out in 2026 when the Hitman studio turns its attention to James Bond in 007: First Light. Will this stealth action-adventure blend the best of Agent 47 with spectacle worthy of Uncharted? If it manages to, maybe it will find itself in game of the year consideration.
Chances: 007 to 1 odds.
Nintendo
A big question mark for 2026 is what games Nintendo has cooking as it approaches the Switch 2’s second year in the wild. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza set the console off to a good start, but neither quite had what it took to win game of the year. So, what could stand a chance? Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Wealth is the upcoming 18th entry into the tactical RPG series, and while we know little about it yet, FE has traditionally set a high quality marker. There’s also Switch 2 exclusive, The Duskbloods, and if there’s anything Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team at FromSoftware know about, it’s winning game of the year awards. Let’s see if this upcoming PvPvE action RPG can do something similar.
While it may be fanciful to expect a new mainline Zelda anytime soon, it has been many years (far too many, if you ask me) since a new 3D Mario game. Nothing is hinting at one arriving in 2026, but we can dare to dream, because if history is to go by, when that plumber starts jumping, he more often than not enters the game of the year conversation.
Chances: A surprise Nintendo hit would Switch things up nicely.
Half-Life 3
Haha, it could happen, couldn’t it? Not that the rumours have ever truly died, but over recent months, whispers have started to get louder and louder about the arrival of a new Half-Life game. A new Steam machine is due out early in 2026, and it would be the perfect launch game, after all. We won’t seriously consider Half-Life 3 a game of the year prospect until we have it in our hands, though, and who knows if that will ever happen. If Valve does decide that the time is now, then it’s certainly a strong contender, as we gave Portal 2 our biggest award back in 2011, as well as Half-Life 2 in 2004.
Chances: Hahahaha
Potential Breakout Hits
As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s not always the games you expect at the start of the year that end up taking home the game of the year prize. So let’s look at a few that are a little more under the radar than those listed above. Replaced has received a lot of buzz and is a 2.5D action-platformer from Ukrainian developer Coatsink. Its beautiful pixel art depicting a sci-fi city with a distinctly Blade Runner-like look could surprise a few that aren’t familiar with it when it arrives on March 12.
Then there’s Mixtape, the new coming-of-age retro adventure from Australian studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, who made a few game of the year shortlists back in 2021 with the psychedelic The Artful Escape. Its nostalgia-laced tale, supported by a soundtrack of ‘80s favourites, could hit just right if it all comes together like the trailers suggest it might. And finally, Mewgenics is an upcoming roguelike tactical RPG from the creators of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac that has been in development for many, many years. The buzz is high for it as it finally looks set for a February 10 release. Could the cat get the cream come December time?
Chances: We all love an underdog story. But what about an undercat?
Verdict
So, who do I think will actually win? Well, it is impossible to ignore the behemoth that is GTA 6, but seeing as I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s arriving this year, I’m going to go with Saros as my pick. I think that Housemarque’s reputation has only grown over time, and more and more people have gotten around to playing Returnal since its 2021 release, and would love to give the studio its flowers in 2026 if Saros turns out to fulfill its potential.
What do you think will win IGN’s game of the year 2026 award? Will it be a game that hasn’t even been revealed yet? Let us know in the comments!
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
