Grand Theft Auto 6 has become part of an exclusive club prior to even being released. The extreme anticipation for the game has become evident at The Game Awards 2025, where Grand Theft Auto 6 took home the award for Most Anticipated Game. In doing so, the game has entered an unusual and exclusive club.
It’s no surprise that players are more than anxious to finally play GTA 6. Over the years, each subsequent addition to the franchise has released to more hype than the last, and sold more copies, too. By the time the next game finally launches, assuming GTA 6 isn’t delayed yet again, there will be thirteen years between GTA 5 and GTA 6‘s release dates. The continued delays seem to have only made gamers more eager.
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Grand Theft Auto 6 Takes Home This Big Award… Again.
At The Game Awards 2025 ceremony, the winner for the Most Anticipated Game was revealed, with Grand Theft Auto 6 taking home the crown. Though a lot of fans likely anticipated this, it did manage to beat other major hitters and eagerly-awaited titles, including Resident Evil Requiem, 007: First Light, Marvel’s Wolverine, and The Witcher 4. However, if Rockstar fans are feeling a sense of deja vu, that’s because this is the second time that the game has brought home this particular award. In the 2024 Game Awards, Grand Theft Auto 6 beat Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, Metroid Prime 4, and Monster Hunter Wilds for the honor.
While getting this award not just once but twice would be remarkable for most games, Grand Theft Auto 6 is in a unique position, as it’s one of the only games to ever achieve this. In fact, this isn’t the only time it’s won twice in a row like this for a similar award. At The Golden Joystick Awards, Grand Theft Auto 6 took home the “Most Wanted Game” win in both 2024 and 2025. Rockstar Games has delayed the release of GTA 6 due to wanting to make the best game anyone’s ever seen, and thankfully for the developer, it seems like interest in the sequel is only rising, despite the long wait.
While GTA 6′s double wins at both The Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards are remarkable, it’s not the only member of this particular club. The Game Awards has only had the Most Anticipated category since 2020, and in those five years, Elden Ring has taken home two of the wins. Just like Grand Theft Auto 6, it saw two sequential nominations, winning the award in 2020 and 2021. Elden Ring fans had a considerably shorter wait than those of Grand Theft Auto 6, as it was revealed in 2019 and launched in 2022. Nonetheless, the hype for the game was similarly massive. However, Elden Ring didn’t match GTA 6‘s double wins in the Golden Joystick Awards, as it only took home the Most Wanted award once.
With exciting game announcements being made every year, including during The Game Awards annual ceremony, it’s no easy task for a game to bring home an award based on player anticipation more than once. Other major hitters that have made an appearance in this category and won include Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which were both hotly anticipated sequels of smash-hit games. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth also had the advantage of being built upon an existing fandom that had persisted for 26 years since the original game’s release at the time it won the award. The same can kind of longevity exists for GTA 6, so perhaps Elden Ring deserves a special nod for achieving the same thing despite not being a direct sequel to an existing game.
Image via Rockstar Games
While gamers are usually happy to see their favorites win awards, with any luck, Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t be eligible to be nominated for Most Anticipated at The Game Awards in 2026. So far, Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive have stood by their announcement that the game will launch in late 2026. However, some don’t believe that GTA 6 will release in 2026. Even in the event that it suffers another delay and technically qualifies to be nominated again, this could be the last time it appears in the Most Anticipated category, as players may get fed up if there’s yet another delay announced. For now, fans will just have to wait and see what the future holds.
Systems
Released
November 19, 2026
ESRB
Rating Pending – Likely Mature 17+
