AI Summary
5 min readGame of the Year Watch 2026: The Contenders So Far
The IGN Game Scoop crew has started their annual Game of the Year watch, and the field is already crowded. Resident Evil Requiem is the best-selling game of the year so far and the clear fan favorite, but the conversation reveals a more complicated picture—one where a horror game that finally bridges old and new Resident Evil sits alongside a cozy Pokémon town builder, a 2D Zelda homage from the Shovel Knight team, a James Bond extraction game, and Bungie's uncompromising new extraction shooter Marathon. The throughline is that 2026 is shaping up as a year where genre boundaries are being deliberately blurred, and the question of what "Game of the Year" even means is becoming harder to answer.
Resident Evil Requiem: The Front Runner
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:05) **Show Introduction** - Hosts Jim, Aliak, and Nick launch a special Game of the Year Watch episode to survey 2026's top candidates.
- 2 (00:49) **Resident Evil Requiem: Best-Selling Front-Runner** - The hosts open with Damien's personal GOTY pick, the best-selling game of the year so far.
- 3 (04:40) **Pokémon Pokopia: Cozy Contender** - The fourth best-selling game of the year enters the discussion as a cozy town-building social simulator.
- 4 (07:21) **Forza Horizon 6: Polished but Familiar** - A 10/10 from IGN, but the hosts debate whether it's truly GOTY material.
- 5 (10:16) **Scoop Nation Fan Poll Results: Fifth Place Tie** - The hosts reveal fan polling results, starting with a tie for fifth place.
- 6 (14:30) **Fan Poll: Fourth and Third Place** - Pokémon Pokopia takes fourth, and Mina the Hollower takes third.
- 7 (16:05) **Fan Poll: Second Place - 007 First Light** - The prequel Bond game from IO Interactive lands at number two.
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Show Notes
Welcome to a special edition of Game of the Year Watch. This is our show where we start lining up potential Game of the Year candidates to see what we’ll likely be voting on come awards season. No matter where you play, there have been a lot of great games released this year already. From Resident Evil to Pokemon to Forza to Crimson Desert to 007… Just an embarrassment of riches for us gamers. I’ve polled the IGN audience to see if there are any frontrunners for the fans.Let’s look at the best-reviewed games of 2026 so far.#gotywatch #gaming #ign
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