Europe arrives at The Game Awards 2026 holding two distinctions at once: the largest bloc on the jury and the best recent run for the top award.
Of the 160 outlets voting this year, 60 are European, a record for a series that began in 2014. Onstage, studios from the continent have won three of the last five Game of the Year awards.
TGA 2026 jury outlets by region
Europe has 60 of the 160 voters; Asia is second, with 35
Source: The Game Awards official jury list; Internet Archive (copies of the official TGA page, 2014 to 2025) · Europe includes the UK; North America covers the US and Canada; Egypt is part of Africa.
On the 2026 jury, Europe has 60 outlets (37.5%), Asia 35 (21.9%), Latin America 34 (21.3%), North America 24 (15%), Oceania 4 (2.5%) and Africa 3 (1.9%).
| Region | Outlets (outlets) | Share of the jury (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 60 | 38 |
| Asia | 35 | 22 |
| Latin America | 34 | 21 |
| North America | 24 | 15 |
| Oceania | 4 | 3 |
| Africa | 3 | 2 |
Source: The Game Awards official jury list; Internet Archive (copies of the official TGA page, 2014 to 2025)
Note: Europe includes the UK; North America covers the US and Canada; Egypt is part of Africa.
The most recent was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, from French studio Sandfall Interactive. In 2025, the game took home nine trophies, the most ever won by a single title in one ceremony. Before it came It Takes Two, from Sweden's Hazelight, in 2021, and Baldur's Gate 3, from Belgium's Larian, in 2023.
North America, which dominated the early years of the awards, has not won since 2020, when The Last of Us Part II took home the trophy.
Jogometria cross-referenced the jury's makeup from 2014 to 2026 with the 68 Game of the Year finalists from 2014 to 2025 to understand how Europe gained ground on both fronts.
Share of the jury
Europe has always carried weight on the TGA jury, but it was in 2018 that it became the largest bloc. In 2014, the continent had 8 of the 28 voting outlets (28.6%). In 2018, it reached 25 of 69 (36.2%) and overtook North America for the first time, by one outlet. It has stayed on top ever since.
In 2026, there are 60 European outlets, 7.5 times as many as in the first edition. Their share reached 37.5%, the highest in the series.
The rise tracks the expansion of the jury itself, which jumped from 28 to 160 outlets, but Europe grew faster than the whole.
Share of the largest regions on the TGA jury, 2014 to 2026
Europe overtook North America in 2018 and reaches 37.5% of the jury in 2026
Source: The Game Awards official jury list; Internet Archive (copies of the official TGA page, 2014 to 2025) · Europe includes the UK. Oceania and Africa are not shown in this chart.
Europe goes from 28.6% of the jury in 2014 to 36.2% in 2018, when it overtakes North America, and reaches 37.5% in 2026. North America falls from 67.9% to 15%; Asia rises from 3.6% to 21.9%; Latin America, from 0% to 21.3%.
| Edition | Europe (%) | North America (%) | Asia (%) | Latin America (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 28.6 | 67.9 | 3.6 | 0.0 |
| 2015 | 23.3 | 63.3 | 3.3 | 6.7 |
| 2016 | 28.6 | 57.1 | 3.6 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 26.9 | 48.1 | 9.6 | 11.5 |
| 2018 | 36.2 | 34.8 | 11.6 | 13.0 |
| 2019 | 36.3 | 28.8 | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| 2020 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 22.9 | 13.5 |
| 2021 | 35.6 | 25.0 | 22.1 | 12.5 |
| 2022 | 33.6 | 21.6 | 23.3 | 16.4 |
| 2023 | 31.9 | 24.4 | 22.7 | 15.1 |
| 2024 | 32.8 | 20.9 | 25.4 | 15.7 |
| 2025 | 35.7 | 18.8 | 24.0 | 16.9 |
| 2026 | 37.5 | 15.0 | 21.9 | 21.3 |
Source: The Game Awards official jury list; Internet Archive (copies of the official TGA page, 2014 to 2025)
Note: Europe includes the UK. Oceania and Africa are not shown in this chart.
More European games among the nominees
Europe's presence in the Game of the Year race reached a new level in 2021. Between 2014 and 2020, the continent landed 4 of the 38 nominees in the awards' top category (10.5%), never more than one per edition.
From 2021 to 2025, it landed 10 of 30 (33.3%), with two or three European finalists a year, except in 2024.
European Game of the Year finalists by edition, 2014 to 2025
Since 2021, Europe has landed two or three finalists a year, except in 2024
Source: Jogometria survey · In blue, editions won by a European studio.
Europe had at most one finalist per edition from 2014 to 2020, three in 2021 and 2022, two in 2023, none in 2024 and two in 2025. It won in 2015, 2021, 2023 and 2025.
| Edition | European finalists (games) | Total finalists (games) | Game of the Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 0 | 5 | Dragon Age: Inquisition (Canada) |
| 2015 | 1 | 5 | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Poland) |
| 2016 | 1 | 5 | Overwatch (United States) |
| 2017 | 1 | 5 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Japan) |
| 2018 | 0 | 6 | God of War (United States) |
| 2019 | 1 | 6 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Japan) |
| 2020 | 0 | 6 | The Last of Us Part II (United States) |
| 2021 | 3 | 6 | It Takes Two (Sweden) |
| 2022 | 3 | 6 | Elden Ring (Japan) |
| 2023 | 2 | 6 | Baldur's Gate 3 (Belgium) |
| 2024 | 0 | 6 | Astro Bot (Japan) |
| 2025 | 2 | 6 | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (France) |
Source: Jogometria survey
Note: In blue, editions won by a European studio.
Over the same period, North America went the opposite way. Its share of nominees in the top category fell from 47.4% to 20%. Japan held steady, at around 40% in both periods.
Europe's rise was not a straight line. In 2024, no game from the continent made the final cut, and Japan took 4 of the 6 spots, with Astro Bot as the winner. The following year, Europe came back with two nominees and won the award.
| Edition | Game of the Year | Studio | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Sandfall Interactive | France |
| 2023 | Baldur's Gate 3 | Larian Studios | Belgium |
| 2021 | It Takes Two | Hazelight Studios | Sweden |
| 2015 | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | CD Projekt Red | Poland |
With four wins in 12 editions, Europe is tied with Japan and North America in the all-time count. The difference is the pace: three of Europe's four wins came in the last five years.
France: a big voting bloc that also lands finalists
France is the country that best sums up Europe's rise. It has the continent's second-largest contingent on the jury, with 47 appearances from 2014 to 2025, and it is the European country with the most Game of the Year finalists: Deathloop (2021), A Plague Tale: Requiem and Stray (both from 2022) and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025), the most recent winner.
Next come Finland and the Netherlands, with two finalists each. Finland's Remedy landed Control (2019) and Alan Wake 2 (2023). Guerrilla, Sony's studio in Amsterdam, got there with Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022). Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Belgium and the Czech Republic have one finalist each.
The United Kingdom is the counterexample. The country has Europe's largest contingent, with 97 jury appearances from 2014 to 2025, but no Game of the Year finalist made by a British studio in the period. Germany, with 45 appearances, also had no nominees.
The closest the United Kingdom came was Red Dead Redemption 2, a finalist in 2018, developed in part by Rockstar North in Edinburgh but attributed to the United States in this survey.
A large bloc does not guarantee nominations
Jury outlets choose the finalists and account for 90% of the vote that decides the winners. Even so, the size of a bloc does not automatically translate into finalists. Japan is the clearest example: it held 4.5% of the jury seats from 2014 to 2025 and 27 of the 68 finalists (39.7%), more than any other country.
Latin America is the flip side. With 14% of the seats over the same period, it had no Game of the Year finalists. Asia, excluding Japan, more than doubled its share of the jury, from 8.9% of the seats between 2014 and 2020 to 19% between 2021 and 2025. Even so, it landed only two finalists in 12 years.
That is why Europe's growth on both fronts works as a snapshot of the weight the continent has gained in the games industry and the games press. The data do not indicate that the jury favors games from its own region.
The next test
The TGA 2026 nominees are expected to be announced in November, with the ceremony in December. The list will show whether Europe keeps up its pace of two or three finalists per edition, now with the largest bloc it has ever had on the jury.