With 2026 shaping up to be a landmark year for the video game industry, anticipation is building around a slate of blockbuster releases and major franchise returns. According to industry analysts and insider reports, the coming months are set to deliver not only long-awaited sequels but also fierce competition among gaming’s biggest names. At the center of this excitement are Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI, both tracking extraordinary levels of player interest and speculation, while Microsoft and Bethesda prepare their own heavy hitters for the crowded release calendar.
During a recent episode of The Game Business Show, Christopher Dring, the show’s host, spoke with Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana (formerly NPD), about which 2026 titles are resonating most strongly with players ahead of launch. Dring revealed that, based on a variety of UK data sources—including social media activity, influencer coverage, video views, likes, shares, and Steam wishlists—Resident Evil Requiem is tracking even stronger than anticipated. “Excluding GTA VI, it was number one by an absolute mile,” Dring explained, highlighting the game’s runaway momentum in pre-release engagement.
Piscatella confirmed that Circana’s own purchase intent tracking aligns closely with this picture. “Grand Theft Auto VI is off the charts in terms of purchase intent,” he said, noting that its anticipation benchmarks against “the best ever” in the industry’s history. Yet, when it comes to upcoming releases, Resident Evil Requiem sits just behind GTA VI. “Right now, in terms of upcoming releases, Resident Evil Requiem is number two,” Piscatella added. “Our data supports that as well, that this is just a very highly anticipated game.”
Both analysts expressed surprise at the strength of Resident Evil Requiem’s tracking, even considering the franchise’s recent resurgence. Piscatella pointed to the success of Resident Evil Village and a series of acclaimed remakes as critical in boosting the brand’s momentum. “The brand strength has definitely been improving,” he said, but admitted that Requiem is performing “a little bit stronger than I had anticipated, too.” High purchase intent often translates into a larger day-one audience, and Piscatella suggested that, should reception prove strong, the game could enjoy long-tail sales well beyond launch.
Capcom is set to release Resident Evil Requiem on February 27, 2026, across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows PC, making it a truly multi-platform event. The franchise’s enduring appeal and recent revitalization seem to have positioned Requiem for a blockbuster debut, with fans and analysts alike watching closely to see if it lives up to the hype.
Meanwhile, the anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI has reached fever pitch. The game, due for launch on November 19, 2026, as confirmed by Take-Two Interactive during a recent earnings call, is already making headlines—somewhat unusually—for its first player review. According to GAMINGbible, GTA VI received its inaugural review last week, with an approval rating of 73% on HowLongToBeat. The circumstances around this review have sparked considerable debate in the gaming community.
The identity of the first player remains a mystery, and it’s unclear how they obtained access to the game ahead of its official release. Some speculate that the reviewer may have been a terminally-ill child whom Rockstar contacted to play the game early—a gesture that, if true, would be in keeping with the studio’s reputation for compassion. As GAMINGbible noted, “There’s speculation that it’s the terminally-ill child Rockstar got in touch with to play the game before launch and if I was a kid given such an opportunity I’d probably rate the game highly as well.”
Still, the 73% score has raised eyebrows, with some suggesting it may be too generous for an unfinished title. “73% for a game that’s not even finished? Seems very generous if you ask me,” the report remarked, reflecting broader skepticism about the validity of pre-release reviews. The review’s legitimacy is likely to be clarified once Rockstar’s marketing campaign ramps up this summer, with a third trailer expected to land around May or June.
While GTA VI and Resident Evil Requiem dominate headlines, Microsoft and its studios are maneuvering to ensure their own major releases don’t get lost in the shuffle. According to Tom Warren of The Verge, both Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day are targeting a summer 2026 release window—deliberately set well ahead of GTA VI’s November launch. Microsoft’s strategy, Warren reports, is to avoid direct competition with Rockstar’s juggernaut by bringing its key franchises to market earlier in the year.
In addition, Fable is aiming for a September-October 2026 launch, further crowding the pre-holiday release calendar. If any of these Xbox titles require extra development time, they’re more likely to be pushed into 2027 rather than risk a head-to-head showdown with GTA VI. “If any games need more time, they are more likely to be pushed into 2027, than released around the GTA 6 launch in November,” Warren observed, underscoring the high stakes and careful timing at play.
Bethesda, too, is working to capitalize on the momentum of its flagship properties. While the first expansion for Starfield, titled Shattered Space, underperformed, the studio is preparing a massive 2.0 update, a second expansion, and a PlayStation 5 port. There’s also word of a new version of Fallout 3 in development, aiming to match the quality of last year’s Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. The technical approach for the Fallout 3 Remastered remains unconfirmed, but the ambition is to deliver a modernized experience while preserving the essence of the original game.
With so many high-profile games vying for players’ attention, 2026 is poised to be a watershed year for the industry. The careful choreography of release dates, the scramble to build pre-launch momentum, and the intense scrutiny of early reviews all reflect the ever-rising stakes in the world of blockbuster gaming. Whether Resident Evil Requiem and GTA VI will meet or exceed their sky-high expectations remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: gamers have plenty of reasons to mark their calendars and clear their schedules.