Every December, The Game Awards wraps up the gaming year with Game of the Year and a long list of category winners, plus a stack of world premiere trailers that often make bigger headlines than the trophies.
If you are searching for The Game Awards 2026 nominees or the show's start time, this guide collects what the official site and the official FAQ say as of November 3, 2026, and nothing more.
You will find the date and venue, start times for the US and the UK, when nominations are expected, which games are eligible, how the jury and fan votes are combined, when fan voting closes, where the show streams, and a quick look back at the 2025 winners.
The 2026 nominees have not been announced yet, so the steps below show exactly where and when to check the moment the list goes live. We do not predict winners here.
The Game Awards 2026 key dates as of November 3
| Milestone | Date and time (PT / ET) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Nominations reveal | Mid-November, exact date not yet posted | Last year's list arrived on November 17 |
| Eligibility cutoff | Fri, Nov 20, 9 PM PT (Sat 12 AM ET) | Games must be commercially available by then |
| Players' Voice cutoff | Mon, Nov 30 | A later release deadline for this category only |
| Fan voting closes | Wed, Dec 9, 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET | Fans make up 10% of each final result |
| Opening act begins | Thu, Dec 10, 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET | Fri 12:30 AM GMT, 1:30 AM CET in Europe |
| Venue and stream | Peacock Theater, Los Angeles | Free on all major platforms; limited public tickets offered through AXS from October 29 |
How nominees and winners are picked: 90% jury, 10% fans
According to the official FAQ, nominees in most categories are chosen by an international jury of more than 100 global media and influencer outlets, while specialized juries handle categories such as esports, accessibility and best adaptation.
Winners are then decided by a blended vote, 90% jury and 10% public fan voting, and the FAQ notes that host and producer Geoff Keighley is not on the jury and does not vote.
Eligibility comes down to the release date: any game commercially available by Friday, November 20, 2026 at 9 PM PT can be nominated, Early Access games included, and expansions, new seasons, DLC, remakes and remasters are eligible if the jury judges them worthy.
The Players' Voice category has a later cutoff of November 30. For context, the 2025 show on December 11 put six games up for Game of the Year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
Clair Obscur led with 13 nominations and won nine awards, Game of the Year included. Counter-Strike 2 won Best Esports Game over a field that also included Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and VALORANT, and Wuthering Waves took Players' Voice.
The official recap counted an estimated 171 million livestreams of the 2025 show and more than 123 million authenticated viewer votes.
How to follow The Game Awards 2026 from nominations to showtime
- 1Get alerted when nominations dropThe nominee list goes up on the official site, thegameawards.com, which already has a 2026 nominees section marked as coming mid-November as of November 3. Check the site and follow The Game Awards' official X account so you catch the exact date as soon as it is set.
- 2Start with the categories you care aboutWhen the list goes live, jump to Game of the Year, Best Esports Game or Players' Voice first. There are a lot of categories, and it is easier to follow the games you actually play than to read the whole list in one sitting.
- 3Cast your fan voteFan voting happens on the official site and counts for 10% of each result. It closes Wednesday, December 9 at 6 PM PT (9 PM ET). The FAQ does not give an opening date as of November 3, so check the voting page when nominations are announced.
- 4Pick where you will watchThe official site says the show streams live and free on all major platforms. Last year it ran on YouTube, Twitch, Steam, TikTok Live, X, Kick, Facebook and Instagram Live, so follow the channel you already use and turn on notifications.
- 5Try the PC nominees yourselfPlenty of nominees and newly announced games land on PC, often on Steam. If you want to keep your first hours with a new game on video, read how to record Steam games before you hit play.
Before showtime on December 10
- Checked thegameawards.com for any change to the date or the 4:30 PM PT opening act time
- Voted before fan voting closes on Wednesday, December 9 at 6 PM PT
- Followed the official stream on the platform you will watch from and turned on notifications
- Read the nominee list for the categories you care about and picked the games you are rooting for
- Ignored unverified leaked winner posts and stuck to official announcements and the official broadcast
After the show: record your own run of this year's games
Watching the trailers and acceptance speeches usually ends with wanting to play something. DOR is a free Windows game recorder: launch a supported game and it detects it automatically, records the whole match or the full session from launch to exit, and collects everything in My Clips in the app.
For League of Legends and VALORANT, both Best Esports Game nominees last year, DOR also saves kills as separate highlight clips automatically, with multikills and objectives in League and ace and clutch tags in VALORANT. Our guide to auto highlight clips explains how that works.
For other supported games such as Wuthering Waves or Modern Warfare 4, the full session is recorded and you trim the moments you want to keep.
You can crop clips to 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1 right in the app for Shorts or TikTok, or open DOR Studio to combine clips, add text, music and effect templates, then export an mp4 or share a dor.gg link that plays straight in a phone browser. To stitch several moments into one video, see how to merge game clips.
