The Game Awards 2026 jury sees record turnover and a record number of Brazilian outlets

The jury that will choose the nominees and winners of The Game Awards 2026 is the largest in the awards' history: 160 outlets, 4% more than in 2025.

But the voting panel is not just the largest ever. It is also the most diverse, with outlets from 41 countries, and the one that has gone through the biggest turnover in its history.

Since the 2025 edition, 38 outlets have left the voting panel and 44 have joined, 40 of which had never been part of the jury. It is the biggest change among voters, in absolute numbers, since the awards began.

In this game of musical chairs, nearly one in four outlets on the 2025 jury did not make the 2026 list. Put another way, 27.5% of the current lineup is made up of outlets that were not in the previous edition.

Two shifts drove the turnover. On one side, Latin America gained ground: the number of outlets from the region grew 31%, with newcomers such as Clarín, La Tercera and Veja. On the other, the United States lost mostly general-interest outlets: seven of the nine American outlets of that kind, such as Rolling Stone, The Atlantic and Esquire, left the jury, while nearly all the specialist gaming sites stayed.

The 2026 changes accelerate a trend that dates back to the first edition: over the series, the TGA jury has become more international. In 2014, there were 28 outlets from eight countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan. In 2026, there are 160 outlets from 41 countries, about five times the number of nations represented in the first year.

Later came, among others, Brazil, Mexico and Australia in 2015; China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in 2017; the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Netherlands in 2020; Egypt, Greece and the Czech Republic in 2021; Colombia, Sweden and Switzerland in 2022; and Taiwan and Hungary in 2025. In 2026, the jury welcomes its first representatives from Austria, Israel and the Dominican Republic, which is also the first Caribbean country to take part in the voting.

In absolute numbers, never have so many outlets joined or left from one edition to the next. Proportionally, 2026 is not a record: the turnover rate trails those of 2016 to 2018, when the jury had between 28 and 69 outlets and each change carried more weight. Still, it is the highest since 2018.

The other record is Brazilian. Brazil has its largest bloc ever at the awards, with 14 outlets, 40% more than in 2025, and 8.8% of the main jury. Only the United States and the United Kingdom, with 17 each, have more.

Brazil's largest bloc ever

The Brazilian bloc grew 40% from 2025 to 2026 without losing a single outlet. All ten from the previous edition remain on the list, joined by three newcomers, Adrenaline, O Vício and Veja, plus TechTudo, which returns to the jury. Until this year, the record share had been set in 2022, when Brazilian outlets made up 7.8% of the jury.

The Brazilian bloc has a distinctive trait: the weight of content creators. Six of the 14 outlets were started by content creators: Combo Infinito, Flow Games, Jogabilidade, Nautilus, O X do Controle and O Vício. They make up 43% of the bloc, more than three times the creators' share of the jury as a whole (12.5%). In 2025, they were half of the ten Brazilian outlets.

The arrival of Veja and TechTudo tilts the bloc toward large groups. Seven of the 14 outlets belong to media groups or larger companies, such as Abril (Veja), Globo (TechTudo), Magalu (Canaltech) and Omelete Company. The six creator outlets are controlled by their own founders, and only in Adrenaline's case was it not possible to confirm who controls the outlet.

In terms of coverage, 11 outlets specialize in games, technology or geek culture. The other three are general-interest outlets or sections within a larger product: Folha de S.Paulo, Veja and Terra Game On.

Brazil's history on the jury starts with a single outlet. In 2015 and 2016, UOL Jogos was the country's only representative, and it stayed on the list until 2021. Omelete arrived in 2017, Voxel in 2018 and Jovem Nerd in 2019. The bloc took shape in 2020, with Tecnoblog and TechTudo, and reached nine outlets in 2022, with Combo Infinito, TecMasters and Terra Game On. Since then, Brazil's new entries have come mostly from creators: Flow Games in 2024; Jogabilidade, Nautilus and O X do Controle in 2025; and O Vício in 2026.

Omelete is the most consistent Brazilian outlet, with nine editions, followed by Voxel, with eight. In the count, Omelete and The Enemy are treated as a single seat, because the official list alternates between the two brands and lists them together in 2018. Omelete, which owns the CCXP fan convention, missed only the 2024 vote.

Less North America, more Latin America

The turnover redrew the jury's map. Latin America was the fastest-growing region: the number of Latin American outlets rose 31% from 2025 to 2026. Europe grew 9%, driven by the United Kingdom, which went from 14 to 17 outlets. At the other end, North America shrank 17%, and Asia 5%. Oceania and Africa kept the same number of outlets.

As a result, North America enters 2026 with 15% of the jury, its smallest share in the series, and drops to the fourth-largest bloc, behind Europe, Asia and Latin America. In the first edition, in 2014, it had two out of every three voters (67.9%). The entire loss came from the United States, which fell from 23 to 17 outlets and is now tied with the United Kingdom. Canada gained one.

Among countries, the United States and the United Kingdom lead, with 17 outlets each, followed by Brazil, with 14. France comes next, with nine. Canada, Spain and Mexico have seven representatives each; Japan, six; and Germany and Italy, five each.

Latin America has followed the TGA's internationalization curve. With no representatives in 2014, the region debuted in 2015 with two outlets and reached 15% of the jury in 2019. In 2026, its share rises to 21.3%, the highest in the series. That is 34 outlets from seven countries: Brazil (14), Mexico (7), Argentina (4), Chile (4), Colombia (2), Peru (2) and the Dominican Republic (1).

Austria, Israel and the Dominican Republic debut

Three countries join the jury for the first time in 2026, each with a specialist gaming outlet: Austria, with Gamers.at; Israel, with Vgames; and the Dominican Republic, with GamersRD. The Dominican Republic is the first Caribbean country on the list and the seventh from Latin America. With them, 45 countries and territories have now been on the jury; four were left out in 2026: Finland, Hong Kong, Romania and Russia.

Asia on the jury, Japan on the stage

In the first three editions, Asia's entire representation on the TGA jury rested with a single outlet, the Japanese magazine Famitsu.

The Game Awards did not truly open its jury to Asian countries until 2017, when the list nearly doubled in size and A9VG (China), Inven (South Korea), Saudi Gamer (Saudi Arabia) and Japan's EAA!! joined. The biggest jump came in 2020, with six Asian countries debuting at once, represented by outlets such as Rappler (Philippines), Dunia Games (Indonesia), GamerBraves (Malaysia), Hardware Zone (Singapore), Online Station (Thailand) and Digit.In (India). That year, Asia's share of the jury rose from 15% to 22.9%. It peaked in 2024, at 25.4%.

Since then, the share has fallen two years in a row, reaching 21.9% in 2026. It was not an exodus. The region lost 11 outlets, such as A9VG (China), Online Station (Thailand) and Techgoondu (Singapore), but gained 9, such as Denfami Nicogamer (Japan), 4Gamers (Taiwan) and Vgames (Israel). The number of outlets from the region fell 5%, from 37 to 35. Because the jury also grew, the share fell by more than that: the loss of outlets explains just over half of the decline, and dilution in a larger jury explains the rest.

Since the jury accounts for 90% of the weight in choosing the winners, Japan is worth a closer look. From 2014 to 2025, Japanese outlets held 45 of the 1,010 jury seats (4.5%). Over the same period, Japanese studios developed 27 of the 68 Game of the Year finalists (39.7%) and 4 of the 12 winners: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019), Elden Ring (2022) and Astro Bot (2024). Outside Japan, Asia had two finalists: PUBG, from South Korea, in 2017, and Black Myth: Wukong, from China, in 2024.

Each game's origin was defined by the country of the studio responsible for its main development, not by the publisher. Metroid Dread, a 2021 finalist, is published by Nintendo but was developed by Spain's MercurySteam and counts as Spain.

Middle income: a presence on the jury, no Game of the Year

The World Bank classifies countries by gross national income per capita. Above roughly $14,400 per person per year, a country is considered high income, such as the United States, Japan, Chile and Poland. Below that are middle-income countries, a group ranging from emerging economies such as Brazil, Mexico and China to India and the Philippines.

On the jury, these countries have a meaningful presence. In 2026, 31.9% of outlets are based in middle-income countries, close to the peak of 32.8% recorded in 2024. Brazil and Mexico alone account for 41% of that group.

Onstage, the picture is different: no middle-income country has won Game of the Year. The main development of the 12 winners from 2014 to 2025 was led by studios in seven countries, all of them high-income countries. Among the category's 68 finalists, only one came from a middle-income country: Black Myth: Wukong, by China's Game Science, in 2024.