With 2026’s most anticipated sport, Grand Theft Auto 6, releasing so late within the 12 months, many have puzzled whether or not it might make the cutoff for the sport trade’s largest celebration of pomp and circumstance. We now have a solution.
The Sport Awards up to date an FAQ on its web site, revealing that video games have to be commercially launched earlier than midnight ET Nov. 20 to qualify for awards in 2026. This date is near final 12 months’s cutoff of Nov. 21, 2025. To be eligible for the Participant’s Voice class (the fan vote), video games should ship on or earlier than Nov. 30. GTA 6 releases at Nov. 19, so it will get in just below the wire.
Sport trade insider NateTheHate lately claimed that Rockstar is sending critics assessment codes earlier than the tip of October, which might give judges ample time to play the sport earlier than they solid their votes. Final 12 months, nominees for the 2025 Sport Awards have been introduced on Nov. 17, 4 days earlier than the cutoff. If Rockstar delays sending out codes as a result of it is involved about leaks, the judges would have little or no time to resolve whether or not it ought to be Sport of the Yr.
How has The Sport Awards been acquired lately?
Whereas The Sport Awards is undeniably the preferred gaming-focused awards present, it has been criticized over time for coming throughout extra like a mini-E3 than the Oscars. As an alternative of specializing in accolades and speeches that commemorate the previous 12 months, it has traditionally been stuffed with trailers for video games that haven’t even been launched but. Final 12 months’s model of the present was extra positively acquired as a result of it left way more time for winners to replicate, as Jennifer English did in a stunning acceptance speech for Greatest Efficiency.
What are the frontrunners for 2026’s Sport of the Yr?
Though it hasn’t launched but, Grand Theft Auto 6 has likelihood of main Sport of the Yr discourse, given Rockstar’s monitor file. There have been many glorious releases in 2026, however assessment aggregators like OpenCritic and Metacritic present few apparent prime candidates, although there’s a massive cluster of equally high-scoring titles. Fireplace Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Mina the Hollower, Forza Horizon 6, Large Stroll, Pokopia, Pragmata, Star Wars: Zero Firm, Blood of the Dawnwalker, and Resident Evil Requiem will all be in rivalry. Up to now, this 12 months lacks a conversation-dominating frontrunner like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Baldur’s Gate 3. GTA 6 may change that when it comes out this November.