Resident Evil Requiem’s GOTY 2026 chances have are becoming clearer

Resident Evil might always be the bridesmaid, never the bride at The Game Awards — but at least it is always the bridesmaid. Capcom’s legendary horror series has been a reliable presence at the awards since its 2017 resurgence with Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, with three Game of the Year nominations (for Resident Evil Village and the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4), multiple nominations for audio, direction, and Best Action Adventure Game, a Best Performance win (for Maggie Robertson as Lady Dimitrescu in Village), and no less than three Best VR/AR Game wins.

The Game Awards jury, then, concurs with the general consensus that Capcom has the consistent quality of Resident Evil games nailed on over the last decade. Even before players and critics had this year’s mainline sequel Resident Evil Requiem in their hands, it looked like the safest of safe bets for a GOTY nomination — arguably even safer than Grand Theft Auto 6, which might always end up delayed again. Leon S. Kennedy might as well send his bridesmaid’s dress to the cleaners, right?

Well, maybe. Reviews — always the strongest indicator of success at The Game Awards, which are voted on by critics and media — for Resident Evil Requiem are uniformly positive but maybe a step short of universal acclaim. Capcom has taken a risk by presenting two versions of Resident Evil in Requiem: terrifying, vulnerable first-person horror when playing as Grace, and rip-roaring third-person action as Leon. Some critics found they vibed with one more than the other, or liked both but found the shifts in tone jarring.

In Requiem’s favor — along with its technical polish and cinematic production values, always a plus with The Game Awards jury — is its seriousness. The game’s mournful tone and engagement with personal and historical trauma will be like catnip to the jury, whose collective taste is still haunted by gaming’s inferiority complex and tends to favor thematic weightiness — when it comes in a glossy action blockbuster package, that is.

To be bluntly numerical about it — because Awards voting is nothing if not a numbers game — this critical reception nets out at a rating of 88 on Metacritic and 89 on OpenCritic, as of this writing. This is the sort of solid result that usually secures a sufficiently high-profile action, adventure, or role-playing game a GOTY nomination, but rules it out of true contention for the top prize, where a 90-plus rating is usually a prerequisite. It’s a Death Stranding 2, an Alan Wake 2, a Horizon Forbidden West kind of result.

It’s a tiny bit soft. Among the previous Resident Evil GOTY nominees, the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4 both scored in the low 90s, powered by nostalgia for the legendary originals as well as excitement at Capcom’s audacious and accomplished retelling. Village managed a nomination on a mere 84 Metascore, but 2021 was a historically weak year at The Game Awards, with no GOTY nominees scoring over 90 — the only time that’s happened — so it’s not really indicative.

The fate of Requiem’s nomination will be decided by how strong the 2026 slate of releases is. It could easily get squeezed out if GTA 6 makes its date, if Marvel’s Wolverine and Control Resonant are as strong as expected, and if wild cards like Fable, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Crimson Desert all pan out — or if it’s a historically strong year for indie games (as it was last year, when Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong broke The Game Awards’ duck on nominating more than one indie for Game of the Year). Nintendo is another unknown quantity.

Whether Resident Evil Requiem will truly contend for Game of the Year 2026 is a coin toss right now. Regardless of the outcome, it has done enough to be considered another critical — and probably commercial — hit for Capcom. But in the context of the series’ recent history, Requiem’s already conditional place in the 2026 roll of honor does pose one thorny question for Resident Evil’s future. When the remakes are routinely more warmly received and (if GOTY nominations are anything to go by) closer to the center of game culture than the new entries, is the series’ lifeblood starting to run a little thin?