The Game Awards 2026 Date & Time Announced

Published Aug 10, 2026, 3:13 PM EDT Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. Created and hosted by the one and only Geoff Keighley, The Game Awards debuted in 2014 as a successor of sorts to the Spike Video Game Awards, which Keighley had previously worked on. Over the following decade, The Game Awards expanded significantly beyond just handing out a few trophies, and has become known for unveiling major game announcements, exclusive trailers, unique live performances, and appearances from developers and celebrities, as well as handing out the coveted Game of the Year award. With the 2025 show generating a reported 171 million global livestreams, up from 154 million in 2024 and 118 million in 2023, The Game Awards is hands down the most popular awards show in gaming. And thanks to a new update from TGA today, gamers can mark their calendars for 2026's official live The Game Awards broadcast (via TGA). The Game Awards has officially revealed the anticipated air date for this year's broadcast, which will go live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, December 10, 2026, at 7:30PM EST and run until roughly 11:00PM. According to the update, nominees will officially be revealed in roughly mid-November, and you can add the event to your calendar now from The Game Awards website. For the uninitiated, The Game Awards is a hugely popular awards show that uses a jury of more than 100 media and influencer outlets from around the world to determine its nominees. Each participating outlet submits an unranked ballot reflecting the collective opinion of its editorial staff, selecting its five choices in each eligible category. The games appearing on the most ballots become the official nominees, with specialist juries used for areas such as esports and accessibility. Notably, Geoff Keighley, the show’s creator and host, does not participate in the voting process, keeping the process as impartial as possible. Once the nominees are announced, the winners are decided through a combination of jury and public voting. The voting jury accounts for 90% of the final result, while votes submitted by fans make up the remaining 10%. Full disclosure, Screen Rant is among the international publications represented on The Game Awards’ official voting jury, alongside outlets including IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, and PC Gamer, as well as many others. The exception to this of course is the Players’ Voice award, which is determined entirely by fan voting, which has gone to beloved indie titles to hugely popular AAA releases and everything in between over the years. This year's ceremony is certainly going to be an interesting one, and gamers worldwide will want to mark their calendars for December 10 for the official 2026 The Game Awards broadcast. Location Peacock Theater, Los Angeles, California. Dates 2025-12-11 Website thegameawards.com