Many are predicting that Grand Robbery Auto 6 will journey to a very simple win for Sport of the Yr in 2026, however some are unusually hanging their bets in different places. Enthusiasts had been looking ahead to Rockstar’s subsequent access within the GTA sequence for greater than a decade, and the developer has driven the discharge date for GTA 6 a number of occasions at this level. For the reason that it’s slated to come back out in simply 8 months on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Collection consoles, concrete details about the sport has been uncomfortably skinny with the exception of a spare few legitimate trailers. In the meantime, in its relative absence, different contenders have risen to the leading edge as doable winners for GOTY at this 12 months’s Sport Awards.
Bets suppose Grand Robbery Auto VI may well be overwhelmed for GOTY 2026
Grand Robbery Auto VI has a 46% likelihood to win Sport of the Yr on the 2026 Sport Awards, consistent with a marketplace on Kalshi (as of March 30). Whilst the much-anticipated sport is easily forward within the standings, it shockingly doesn’t have part of the entire bets. In truth, a number of weeks in the past on March 17, GTA 6 handiest held 39.2% of the unfold, appearing how unstable its place has been.
A number of notable competition for GTA 6 come with Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem at 14%, Pearl Abyss’s Pink Wasteland at 10%, and Housemarque’s Saros additionally at 10%. Out of the 3, Resident Evil Requiem is the least unexpected with its top Metacritic ranking of 89 (PSLS’s Shaan Joshi give it a 9 out of 10) and an overwhelmingly certain ranking of 96% from consumer critiques on Steam. Liberating on February 27, the horror motion name broke information for the franchise with it promoting 5 million copies in simply 5 days, and in mid-March, Capcom printed that it had exceeded 6 million gadgets in gross sales.
Via comparability, Pink Wasteland has had a slow-burn method. Early critiques and impressions for the open-world myth sport weren’t as top as Resident Evil Requiem’s, however Pearl Abyss has briefly launched patches that experience mounted many problems with the controls and consumer interface. Many have pointed to its gorgeous, scenic, huge landscapes with a lot of issues for exploration on land and within the sky. (As somebody who has already clocked 100 hours within the sport, I’ve been hooked.) In spite of its flaws in storytelling, it’s briefly changing into a dismal horse for GOTY 2026.
In what’s successfully a religious successor to 2021’s Returnal, the third-person motion name Saros is a PS5 unique that mixes roguelike components with bullethell gameplay. First printed in a February 2025 State of Play, Saros follows Arjun Devraj as he makes an attempt to seek for solutions about an off-world colony on Carcosa. The sport expects the nature to die after which go back to lifestyles time and again over, changing into more potent with every runthrough. It’s nonetheless early to mention whether or not Saros, which is slated to unlock in April 30, is worthy of a GOTY nomination, however in comparison to one of the vital different video games within the guess, it will as smartly be forward of time table.
Many of the different choices within the guess have an out of doors shot of profitable over GTA 6: Keep watch over Resonant (4%), Delusion (4%), Part-Existence 3 (4%), Surprise’s Wolverine (3%), Slay the Spire 2 (3%), The Duskbloods (2%), and Phantom Blade 0 (2%). The remaining won not up to 1% of the unfold, together with Pragmata, Cairn, Marathon, and Onimusha Means of the Sword.
Once more, it’s nonetheless very early to speak about many of those video games, however Keep watch over Resonant will have to be within the dialog for the reason that the unique 2019 name won more than one GOTY awards. The similar is going for Surprise’s Wolverine, which is about to unlock on September 15, given Insomniac Video games’ action-adventure prowess with its Spiderman franchise. We might await their shares to upward push, in an effort to talk, as we see extra gameplay pictures of each video games and get nearer to their unlock date.
GTA 6 may just take itself out of the operating for GOTY 2026
With the choice of delays that Grand Robbery Auto 6 has already skilled, it might now not be unexpected if Rockstar have been to push it again once more and out of the window for the 2026 Sport Awards altogether. Positive, it might be disappointing, however it wouldn’t be out of step at this level.
As a recap, the developer introduced in Might 2025 that GTA 6 could be driven again a 12 months to Might 26, 2026, mentioning that it wanted “time beyond regulation to ship on the degree of high quality you are expecting and deserve.” Then in November 2025, six months after the second one trailer, Rockstar printed every other lengthen for the sport to its present unlock date of November 19, mentioning that it might want “additional months” for sharpening. Whether or not this may occur yet one more time is someone’s wager, although we wouldn’t fault someone for bracing themselves for every other lengthen (and a $80 worth level).
What’s been being worried is the loss of verbal exchange or updates in regards to the sport’s growth. In comparison to the leadup for Crimson Useless Redemption 2 and Grand Robbery Auto V, either one of which took about two years between their first trailers and their legitimate unlock, the look forward to GTA 6 has been longer at 3 years (yep, Trailer 1 used to be printed the entire long ago in December 2023). Now we have but to peer any in-depth trailers for the name, one thing that Rockstar has a tendency to show within the months sooner than one among their video games pop out. If we don’t see any of a lot of these trailers for GTA 6 via the top of June, lovers will have to get ready themselves for it to be in all probability driven to 2027.
