Grand Theft Auto 6 will be eligible for The Game Awards 2026, after the show published its eligibility cutoff in an updated FAQ on its website. To qualify, games must be commercially available on or before Friday, November 20, 2026, at 9pm PT. Rockstar's game is scheduled for release on November 19, one day inside the window.
The Players' Voice category, which is decided by fan vote, has a later cutoff: games must ship on or before November 30. The date was highlighted on X by industry watcher Shinobi602, who also pointed out that cutoffs have varied by only a day or two from year to year, Eurogamer reports. Polygon notes that last year's cutoff was November 21, 2025.
This year's show takes place on December 10. In 2025, nominees were announced on November 17, four days before that year's cutoff, according to Polygon. Polygon also reports a claim by industry insider NateTheHate that Rockstar is sending review codes to critics before the end of October; if codes go out later over leak concerns, jury members would have little time with the game before voting. Eurogamer disclosed that it is a member of The Game Awards jury.
The records in play
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 holds the record for wins at a single show, with nine at The Game Awards 2025, including Game of the Year. Baldur's Gate 3 held the previous mark with six. Rockstar's last major release, Red Dead Redemption 2, won four awards in 2018: Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Score/Music, and Best Performance, the last for Roger Clark's portrayal of Arthur Morgan.
Polygon lists Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Mina the Hollower, Forza Horizon 6, Big Walk, Pokopia, Pragmata, Star Wars: Zero Company, The Blood of Dawnwalker and Resident Evil Requiem among the 2026 releases likely to be in contention, and notes that review aggregators show a cluster of similarly scored titles rather than a clear frontrunner.
