The Game Awards 2026 takes place on Thursday, December 10, 2026. It streams live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and Geoff Keighley hosts the show. The nominees are not out yet. The official site says they are coming in mid-November, and no exact reveal date has been announced.
This page is your hub for the show. It covers the date and start time, the award categories, how the voting works, which games are eligible this year, and how to watch for free. The moment the official nominees land, the full list will be added right here on this page.
Show Date
Thursday, December 10, 2026
Opening Act
4:30 p.m. PT · 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue
Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
Nominees
Coming mid-November 2026
Game Awards 2026 nominees: the full list is coming
Here is the honest answer first: as of today, no 2026 nominees have been announced. The Game Awards has confirmed only that the 2026 nominees are coming in mid-November. It has not named an exact day. Any site showing you a full 2026 nominee list right now is guessing, so do not trust one.
When the announcement drops, the nominees for every category will be published in the box below. Bookmark this page and check back after the reveal.
📝 Nominees update slot. This section is reserved for the official nominee list. When The Game Awards announces the 2026 nominees in mid-November, the full list for every category will appear here, category by category. Until then, this slot stays empty on purpose: the nominees simply do not exist yet.
What we can show you today is the field the nominees will be picked from. The table below lists the 29 categories used at the most recent ceremony in 2025, with the names exactly as officially published. The 2026 category list is confirmed alongside the nominees, and this table will be updated to match it if anything changes.
| Category | What it rewards |
|---|---|
| Game of the Year | The best overall game experience of the year. |
| Best Game Direction | Outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design. |
| Best Narrative | Outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game. |
| Best Art Direction | Outstanding creative and technical achievement in artistic design and animation. |
| Best Score and Music | Outstanding music, including score, original songs and licensed soundtrack. |
| Best Audio Design | The best in-game audio and sound design. |
| Best Performance | Best voice-over acting, motion capture or performance capture work. |
| Innovation in Accessibility | Features, technology and content that help games be played by a wider audience. |
| Games for Impact | A thought-provoking game with a pro-social meaning or message. |
| Best Ongoing Game | Outstanding development of ongoing content that grows the player experience over time. |
| Best Community Support | Outstanding community support, transparency and responsiveness to players. |
| Best Independent Game | Outstanding achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system. |
| Best Debut Indie Game | The best debut game created by a new independent studio. |
| Best Mobile Game | The best game playable on a mobile device. |
| Best Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality | The best game experience playable in virtual or augmented reality. |
| Best Action Game | The best action game, focused mainly on combat. |
| Best Action / Adventure | The best mix of combat, traversal and puzzle solving. |
| Best Role-Playing | The best game built on rich character customisation and progression. |
| Best Fighting | The best game designed mainly around head-to-head combat. |
| Best Family | The best game appropriate for family play, on any platform. |
| Best Simulation / Strategy | The best real-time or turn-based simulation or strategy game. |
| Best Sports / Racing | The best traditional or non-traditional sports or racing game. |
| Best Multiplayer | Outstanding online multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op. |
| Best Adaptation | Outstanding work adapting a video game to another entertainment medium. |
| Most Anticipated Game | An announced game that shows the most potential to push the medium forward. |
| Content Creator of the Year | A streamer or creator who made an important, positive impact on the community. |
| Best eSports Game | The game that delivered the best overall esports experience to players. |
| Best eSports Athlete | The esports athlete judged most outstanding for performance and conduct. |
| Best eSports Team | The esports team judged most outstanding for performance and conduct. |
One more award sits outside this table: Players’ Voice. It is the one award decided fully by fans, with no jury involved. It gets its own section in the voting guide below.
How the voting works
The nominees are not picked by the public, and they are not picked by one person. They are chosen by an international jury of more than 100 global media and influencer outlets, selected for their history of reviewing games.
- Each voting outlet files a confidential, unranked ballot with its top five choices in each category.
- The ballots are counted, and the five games that appear on the most ballots become the nominees. A tie can push a category to six nominees or more.
- Winners are then decided by a blended vote: the jury counts for 90 percent, and public fan voting counts for 10 percent.
- Separate specialist juries handle some categories, including esports, accessibility and best adaptation.
- Geoff Keighley is not a jury member and does not vote. The advisory board has no role in the awards and learns the results at the same time as the public.
Fans vote on TheGameAwards.com once voting opens with the nominee announcement. In China, fans vote through Bilibili. Fan voting closes on Wednesday, December 9 at 6 p.m. PT, the night before the show.
Players’ Voice works differently. It is decided 100 percent by fan voting, so it is the one trophy the community fully controls. It also uses a later eligibility cutoff: a game only needs to ship on or before November 30, 2026 to qualify. The Game Awards has not yet published the round schedule for the 2026 vote, so watch this page and we will add the dates when they are official.
Which games are eligible in 2026
The main rule is short and strict: a game must be made commercially available to customers on or before Friday, November 20, 2026, at 9 p.m. PT. Anything on sale by that moment can be nominated. There is no entry form and no fee, so every game is in the running automatically.
Older games are not shut out either. A game from a previous year stays eligible in every category if the jury feels new content or big updates earned it, and the Best Ongoing Game category exists for exactly those titles. Expansion packs, DLC, remakes and remasters can also be nominated.
To make the window real, here are five major 2026 releases that fall inside it. This is an eligibility list, nothing more: being eligible is not a nomination, and the jury still has to vote for a game to put it on the ballot.
| Game | Release date | Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil Requiem | February 27, 2026 | Capcom |
| Crimson Desert | March 19, 2026 | Pearl Abyss |
| 007 First Light | May 27, 2026 | IO Interactive |
| Marvel’s Wolverine | September 15, 2026 | Insomniac Games |
| Grand Theft Auto VI | November 19, 2026 | Rockstar Games |
Grand Theft Auto VI is the close call everyone is talking about. It launches on November 19, one day before the cutoff, so it qualifies with about a day to spare. If you are counting down to that launch, our GTA 6 preload guide has the download start times and the file size, and our GTA 6 price guide compares the Standard and Ultimate editions. And one quirk of the rules: a game that launches between November 21 and November 30 misses the main categories, but it can still compete in Players’ Voice.
How to watch The Game Awards 2026
Watching is easy and free. The show streams live across all major streaming services on Thursday, December 10, with world premieres and musical performances alongside the awards. Co-streaming is welcomed and encouraged by the organisers. If you want to be in the room instead, a limited number of public tickets are sold through the Peacock Theater box office.
The official listing gives one start time: the opening act at 7:30 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. PT. No separate main show time is published, so tune in at the opening act to catch everything. Here is that start time around the world:
| City | Opening act starts |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles (PT) | 4:30 p.m., Thursday, December 10 |
| New York (ET) | 7:30 p.m., Thursday, December 10 |
| London (GMT) | 12:30 a.m., Friday, December 11 |
| Berlin (CET) | 1:30 a.m., Friday, December 11 |
| India (IST) | 6:00 a.m., Friday, December 11 |
| Tokyo (JST) | 9:30 a.m., Friday, December 11 |
| Sydney (AEDT) | 11:30 a.m., Friday, December 11 |
Game Awards 2026 questions
When are the Game Awards 2026 nominees announced?
The Game Awards has confirmed only that the 2026 nominees are coming in mid-November. No exact date has been announced. As soon as the official list is out, the full list for every category will be published on this page.
When is The Game Awards 2026?
The show is on Thursday, December 10, 2026, live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The opening act starts at 7:30 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. PT, and the show streams free across all major streaming services.
How do I vote at The Game Awards 2026?
Vote at TheGameAwards.com once voting opens with the nominee announcement. Your votes count for 10 percent of the final result, and fan voting closes on Wednesday, December 9 at 6 p.m. PT. In China, fan voting runs through Bilibili.
Who picks the winners?
A blended vote picks the winners. An international jury of more than 100 media and influencer outlets counts for 90 percent, and public fan voting counts for 10 percent. The same jury chooses the nominees, using unranked ballots that list each outlet’s top five in every category.
Is GTA 6 eligible for The Game Awards 2026?
Yes. Games must be on sale by Friday, November 20, 2026 at 9 p.m. PT, and GTA 6 launches on November 19, so it qualifies with about a day to spare. Eligibility is not a nomination, though: the jury still has to vote it onto the ballot.
What is Players’ Voice?
Players’ Voice is the award decided 100 percent by fan voting, with no jury. Its eligibility cutoff is later than the main categories: games must ship on or before November 30, 2026. The round schedule for the 2026 vote has not been published yet.
Final verdict
The date is set, the rules are clear, and the only missing piece is the list itself. The nominees land in mid-November, fan voting closes on December 9, and the trophies are handed out on December 10. Bookmark this page: the full nominee list goes here the moment it is official, and the winners will follow on show night.
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