It’s been one heck of year. New site, loads of new games and still some massive ones to come. Game of the Year 2026 is going to be really interesting. Especially as 2 massive November releases are really going to shake things up, especially making themselves fresh in people’s minds.
One thing we’ve always done with Game of the Year is look at all games we’ve played throughout the year. Not just new releases, but old titles, anything we’ve reviewed or played for any amount of time. If a game is good and has been played in the year, it’s eligible here at dyingartmedia.com
There’s no need to do things differently, we like how we’d managed to shape Game of the Year-up over the last few years, so we’ll continue.
One thing we need to start doing now, though. Is looking at the contenders for 2026. Because it’ll be January before we know it and there’s potentially a lot to be played between now and then.
Game of the Year 2026 Contenders
It feels early to be calling this, but it’s well worth getting things organised and in some shape before the behemoths of the Ocarina of Time Remake and GTA VI come out and consume the rest of the year.
There are games we wish we had gotten around, to, too. We’ll come to those in a bit, and see if we can find a way to get to them in the meantime. But for now, these are the best games (in our humble opinion) that we’ve played in 2026.
Note that there’s no particular order, and this is very much about getting things aligned. We’ll go into detail on each game in a follow-up post to give the full rationale.
- Mewgenics
- 007 First Light
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Star Wars Zero Company
- Halo Campaign Evolved
- Starfox
- Final Fantasy X
- Marathon
We’ve played a lot of Battlefield 6, PUBG and Overwatch, too. All excellent, but we’ll exclude them for the purpose of focusing on titles we’ve at least started this year.
Upcoming titles
There’s a massive month looming, with November on the horizon, and 2 of the biggest releases of the year coming out within weeks of each other.
Ocarina of Time and GTA VI cannot and will not be ignored, but whether or not we find enough time to play them and finish them to be in contention for Game of the Year 2026, is still to be seen,
GTA is likely to be massive in terms of scope and play time. Ocarina of time should be a smaller affair if it stays true to the original game, but even so, there’s plenty to go at there, too.
The rest
There are quite a few other games we would like to get around to, too. But it feels quite unlikely at this stage.
Notably, Pragmata and Star Wars Galactic Racer feel like two gems that we really need to get in, in time. Whether or not we can is a different story.
Can we get 2 more contenders in against the other big 2 for Game of the Year 2026? If so, we need to cull the list as we’ll be at 12, and honestly, more than 10 feels like we just can’t be decisive enough anyway.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how November and December play-out and what Game of the Year 2026 ends up looking like.
Time will tell
We haven’t included the incredible DLC for Ghost of Yotei, which feels like a crime. There’s add-ons for Hitman and Two Point Museum that are stellar and worth your time. 2026 has been a great year for gaming in general, and in truth, we’ve found some incredible independent titles, too.
We’ll do an Indie Game of the Year over at indie-exposure.com as well, which will focus on those more, as we’re looking at so many AAA/AA titles here. It’s much better to give them their own spotlight and not take away from them.
The year isn’t over and it’s going to end very strong. So it’s going to be a wild ride.
We’ll do our best to keep up, but if we can’t we can’t, and we already have plenty of solid contenders for Game of the Year 2026.
