GTA 6 Could Be Nominated for GOTY Before Reviews Drop

This will be a particularly busy week for the gaming industry, as Grand Theft Auto 6 nears its release date and Geoff Keighley prepares to announce The Game Awards nominees. The timing creates a rare opportunity: GTA 6 could be nominated for the event's Game of the Year on November 17, a day before its reviews are reportedly set to go live.

The GTA 6 hype has already transcended the normal gaming audience, with the release date being November 19. The conversation is reaching mainstream spaces, with some businesses and game studios reportedly giving employees time off to play. Pocketpair is one company planning a multi-day break.

GTA 6 is already breaking records before its release.

The pre-release estimates have only added to the scale of the moment. According to Sensor Tower figures cited in the source, GTA 6 has over 12 million pre-orders and is on track to make $1.2 billion, with about three-quarters coming from PS5 and the rest from Xbox Series. Note: These are estimates, not final launch sales.

The discussion says the Game Awards nomination announcement will be made on November 17 at noon Eastern. That would put the reveal ahead of the reported November 18 review embargo and two days ahead of the November 19 launch of GTA 6. If the game is nominated, we could find out its place in the Game of the Year lineup before critics' scores are released.

The Game Awards could nominate GTA 6 before reviews are out.

That would be a weird sequence: the public would be waiting for reviews, but voting panel members may already have had access to GTA 6. The game is said to be within the eligibility cutoff, meaning its release date wouldn't automatically disqualify it. Such a nomination could come in before Metacritic or OpenCritic scores become available.

The race for the 2026 Game of the Year is also expected to be a hard one. We're talking about some of the highest-rated releases, like Ocarina of Time, Big Walk, Forza Horizon 6, Mina the Hollower, and Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter. However, strong reviews alone won't guarantee a place among The Game Awards' six nominees.

Six games will likely be nominated for Game of the Year.

One set of predictions has the likely six nominees as GTA 6, Ocarina of Time, Phantom Blade Zero, Control Resonant, 007 First Light, and Resident Evil Requiem. These are my own predictions, not an official shortlist. "GTA 6 and Ocarina of Time are really safe bets; 007 First Light and Resident Evil Requiem are also strong contenders," the speaker believes.

Phantom Blade Zero is included partly because of its commercial performance and positive reception, while 007 First Light is seen as a title with broad mainstream appeal. Control Resonant earns a spot because the original Control earned a lot of love from the Game Awards voting panel. Mina the Hollower was seen as a replacement for Control Resonant.

Many games might be excluded because of stiff competition.

Other games might make those predictions even more complicated. Big Walk is predicted to be a strong contender in the multiplayer category, with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave and Poptopia also tipped as possibilities. With so many highly reviewed releases vying for a limited number of slots, even notable games might not make the main Game of the Year lineup

The official nominations will settle that debate on November 17, but the timing means that GTA 6 might be in the conversation before its reviews are public. The game is already drawing a lot of industry attention as its November 19 release date approaches. The coming days will show us how The Game Awards views the year, and if GTA 6 can live up to enormous expectations.