The Game Awards 2026 nominees are revealed on November 17
The Game Awards 2026 nominees are revealed live on November 17 at noon ET (5pm UK), and GTA 6 is eligible despite launching two days later.
14th Nov 2026 12:15
Image via Rockstar Games
The Game Awards 2026 nominees are revealed on November 17
The Game Awards 2026 nominees are revealed live on November 17 at noon ET (5pm UK), and GTA 6 is eligible despite launching two days later.
14th Nov 2026 12:15
Image via Rockstar Games
The Game Awards 2026 nominees will be revealed live on Tuesday, November 17, and GTA 6 is eligible for the lot, even though it won't actually be out for another two days.
The Game Awards announced on X that Geoff Keighley will host a global nomination announcement special at noon ET / 9am PT (5pm UK), with every category, Game of the Year included, revealed during the stream. KeenGamer reports that it'll go out on the show's YouTube and Twitch channels, and that the nominees are picked by the usual global jury of media and creator outlets.
Vice City sneaks in under the wire
The interesting wrinkle this year is GTA 6. The Game Awards' official FAQ says a game has to be commercially available on or before Friday, November 20, 2026, at 9pm PT (5am UK on November 21) to qualify, and Rockstar's game unlocks at midnight local time on November 19, so it scrapes in with a day to spare. That means it could pick up nominations on Tuesday before most of us have played a single minute of it, which is a fairly bold position for the jury to be in whichever way it goes.
If you're still sorting out your download, our GTA 6 pre-load guide has the times and file size, and the game has already had a mystery 1GB update to keep you busy (well, sort of).
| What | When |
| Nominees revealed | Tuesday, November 17, noon ET / 9am PT (5pm UK) |
| Eligibility cut-off | Friday, November 20, 9pm PT (5am UK, November 21) |
| Fan voting closes | Wednesday, December 9, 6pm PT |
| The Game Awards 2026 | Thursday, December 10, 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT (12:30am UK, December 11) |
Fan voting runs on TheGameAwards.com until December 9, though it's worth knowing that the public vote only counts for 10% of the result, with the jury making up the other 90%, so don't expect a fan campaign to swing it on its own. The show itself streams from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 10, and as we covered this week, it's on Disney+ in the US and select other markets this year.
Well, the predictions start now, so it's probably a good time to dig out your Game of the Year list and see how many of your picks actually make the cut on Tuesday.
About The Author
Jake Bannister
Jake is GGRecon's Co-Founder and Operations Director. You'll find him covering our word game brain teasers, as well as sports games such as Football Manager and EA FC. He's also that teammate on your Rocket League team spamming "Wow!".
