Geoff Keighley has already set Thursday, December 10, as the date for The Game Awards 2026.
The show’s creator and host announced the “save the date” news in a post on social media today. It’s early confirmation for this year’s show, securing its spot at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles nine months before viewers tune into what Keighley has previously referred to as “gaming’s biggest night.”
📅 Save The Date
Live from @peacock_theater in Los Angeles
📍 Thursday, December 10, 2026
More details later this year ✨ pic.twitter.com/uKLVnw6gWU
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) February 2, 2026
Gaming fans often spend the months leading up to the award show predicting which titles will take home awards for major categories like Game of the Year, Best Narrative, Best Game Direction, and Best Performance. At just one month into 2026, you’d think there would be no reasonable predictions as far as the winners (and losers) go for this year’s Game Awards, but fans already have one game on their minds: Grand Theft Auto 6.
Rockstar Games has a history of big wins at shows like these (Red Dead Redemption 2 had the most awards at The Game Awards 2018), so the long-in-development sixth mainline GTA game is on everyone’s radar. Other highly anticipated titles, like Resident Evil Requiem, Saros, Fable, and Control Resonant have some expecting steep competition, especially when it comes to the Game of the Year award, but there are a few other issues to consider, too.
Like any other industry award show, The Game Awards has a cutoff date a few weeks before the event itself, keeping some games from being competing despite being released in the year the show is held. For The Game Awards 2025, the cutoff date was November 21, 2025, at 9 p.m. PT / 12 a.m. ET. GTA 6 has a release date of November 19, 2026 – and that’s if it can dodge yet another delay. Meanwhile, with so much time left in the year, there’s a high likelihood at some of the year’s best game may not have even been announced yet.
“And the most anticipated game award in 2026 goes to GTA 6” https://t.co/CoHBHJtN1W pic.twitter.com/GMslOQ90d8
— GTA 6 Countdown ⏳ (@GTAVI_Countdown) February 2, 2026
Today’s announcement arrives less than two months after Keighley hosted The Game Awards 2025 on December 11. The show brought a number of bombshell announcements and reveals, including Divinity, a first look at Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil Requiem, two Tomb Raider games, footage from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and more. The one-last-thing reveal of the night was a first look at Highguard.
While we wait to see what surprises Keighley will eventually have up his sleeves for The Game Awards 2026, you can see IGN’s list of the biggest games coming in 2026. You can also check out our breakdown of the projects we think are most likely to walk away with the Game of the Year prize, as well as our pick for the best game of 2025.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
