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In This Edition
- What are the biggest games of 2026?
- Sony and Nintendo financial results
- Circana’s Mat Piscatella joins us on the Show
We are in celebratory mood here at The Game Business, because we’ve just surpassed 20,000 subscribers across our channels!
That’s 20,000 real humans who want to hear from us twice a week….
Or three times a week if you’re a paying subscriber…
Although this week, you’ve actually heard from us four times because of our bonus newsletter featuring interviews with Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick and Epic Store’s Steve Allison.
Regardless, 20,000 feels like a really strong number to have reached in 10 months. And it’s been fascinating to hear how people are engaging with our stuff. One CEO listens to us on Apple Podcasts while down the gym. Another studio head watches us on YouTube every Friday morning (both episodes). And just last month, I found out a boss of a major platform holder watches us “primarily on TikTok”.
And here you are, reading our newsletter. Multiplatform is the future (or at least, it’s one of them).
Speaking of multiple platforms, if you want to listen or watch us this week, it’s another bumper episode. We are joined by Mat Piscatella, the Circana games boss, who shares with us his take on the US game market, and joins me in discussing the biggest video games still to come in 2026 (specifically, games not called Grand Theft Auto).
Of course, if you just want to see the list of games and don’t fancy hearing our lovely voices, I’ve written that up for you below.
Article, podcast or video? It’s up to you!
Enjoy.
What are the biggest video games coming out in 2026?
Grand Theft Auto 6, obviously. That doesn’t need even thinking about. The Rockstar game is out November 19 (at the moment), and nothing is going to come close.
But what about games not called GTA? If we discount Rockstar’s next crime opus for a moment, what other big titles are going to define the next 11 months?
It’s a good question, and I’m sure we all have opinions on that. But we don’t do opinions here at The Game Business (ok, we do, but we don’t always do opinions). So, I went to those smart folks at LevelUp Analytics. They track everything: article numbers, YouTube views, likes, shares, reactions, comments… and I asked them to give me a list of the 2026 games that have generated the most online noise, coverage and excitement.
Now the data below is based on 2025 data alone. That means if a game has received a lot of buzz and coverage in January (like Forza Horizon 6, for example), well that data isn’t included here. And 2026 games that were revealed during The Game Awards in December (like Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, for example), won’t have had many weeks to get the numbers needed to crack the list.
And let’s be clear, online noise doesn’t necessarily mean these are all going to be top sellers. Big hardcore games are always going to generate a lot more pre-launch buzz than something aimed at a younger or more casual audience.
But with all of those caveats out of the way, let’s check out our top games list.
LevelUp Analytics Key
Creators = Active posters during 2025. Including influencers, press, official channels and general consumers
Views = Covering YouTube, TikTok, Twitch etcetera
Publications = Articles (for press outlets) as well as social media posts, videos and streams
Engagement = This is calculated as the sum of likes/reactions, comments/replies and shares/retweets, when available, across all channels (including Reddit and Discord)
Resident Evil: Requiem
Capcom
February 27
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.1, Publications: No.1, Views: No.1, Engagement: No.1, Steam Wishlist: No.1
Resident Evil Requiem was comfortably No.1 (after GTA 6) across every metric. Capcom has done a tremendous job with the upcoming horror game, which dominated Summer Game Fest 2025 when it was first announced. The reveal of Leon S Kennedy as a playable character during The Game Awards saw the title come out top there, too. It’s destined to be a major hit.
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
Warner Bros/TT Games
May 29
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.9, Publications: No.10, Engagement: No.2, Views: No.2, Steam Wishlists: No.11
It may not have the most press or influencer numbers, but when it comes to engagement and views, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight came out very highly. It was revealed during Gamescom last year and won the show in terms of coverage. The last LEGO title from TT Games, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, was the No.5 game of 2022 in the US and No.3 in the UK. Is Batman bigger than Star Wars? Maybe not. Even so, this will be a big one amongst a broader audience.
007 First Light
IO Interactive
May 27
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.4, Publications: No.2, Engagement: No.3, Views: No.3, Steam Wishlists: No.18
James Bond has returned. IO Interactive has conducted a big PR campaign for its 007 game, with strong, celeb-backed showings at Summer Game Fest, Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show and The Game Awards. The game features famous names such as Patrick Gibson, Gemma Chan and Lenny Kravitz. It’s a big budget, old-school, single-player action game. Licensed games are no guarantee in today’s market, but it’s certainly looking strong at this stage.
Marvel’s Wolverine`
Sony/Insomniac
Fall 2026
PS5
Rankings: Creators: No.13, Publications: No,15, Engagement: No.4, Views: No.4
The first exclusive to make the list. The biggest PS5-only game of the year sees Spider-Man developer Insomniac tackle another iconic Marvel hero. We’ve only had one main showing of the game so far, with a bigger reveal planned for the summer. That might explain the slightly lower number of publications and media coverage. However, online conversation and trailer views are very high.
The Duskbloods
Nintendo/FromSoftware
2026
Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.12, Publications: No.12, Engagement: No.5, Views: No5.
The weakness of our system shows itself here. Do we really believe a PVP/PVE hardcore action RPG is going to be the biggest Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive this year? Bigger than Pokémon Pokopia? Not really. But this just shows the pull of the FromSoftware name in the modern age. Can Nintendo convert FromSoftware players into Switch 2 owners? That’ll be interesting to see.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
Sony/Arc System Works
2026
PC, PS5
Rankings: Creators: No.5, Publications: No.4, Engagement No.8, Views No.7
Fighting games do tend to perform well when it comes to online engagement due to the strength of that community. Marvel Tokon was announced during PlayStation’s State of Play event last June, and it’s made by the developer behind the much-loved Dragon Ball: FighterZ. It has also drawn favourable comparisons to the Capcom Marvel titles.
ReAnimal
THQ Nordic/Tarsier Studios
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.2, Publications: No.5, Engagement: No.7, Views: No.10, Steam Wishlists: No.4
Tarsier is famous for making the puzzle platform horror games Little Nightmares 1 and 2, which have together sold 20 million units. Those games are owned by Bandai Namco, and after Tarsier was acquired by Embracer in 2019, the developer embarked on creating an entirely new IP. That new IP is ReAnimal, and Little Nightmares fans (somewhat disappointed in last year’s Little Nightmares 3, which was made by Supermassive Games) are very excited about it.
The Blood of the Dawnwalker
2026
Bandai Namco/Rebel Wolves
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
Rankings: Creators: No.8, Publications: No.6, Engagement: No.8, Views: No.8
Rebel Wolves is a new studio, but the people involved are famous for their work on games such as The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. The Blood of the Dawnwalker was revealed last year, and received a big showing at Gamescom, too. With The Witcher 4 still a way off from release, fans of that franchise are keeping an eye on this on in the meantime.
Phantom Blade Zero
September 9, 2026
S-GAME
PS5, PC
Rankings: Creators: No.11, Publications: No.9, Engagement: No.10, Views: No.10, Steam Wishlists: No.7
Could this be the next Black Myth: Wukong? This game, developed in China, is receiving those comparisons and is receiving a lot of promotion in the West, too. Its release date was revealed on stage at The Game Awards in December.
Pragmata
April 24, 2026
Capcom
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Rankings: Creators: No.4, Publications: No.3, Engagement: No.11, Views: No.9, Steam Wishlists No.6
Capcom start and finish our list, and this new IP is proving to be a bit of a surprise package. Creators and press are somewhat impressed with what they’re seeing from Pragmata, and there’s enthusiasm from fans online. Like most games in the latter half of this list, it’s a niche concept, but it could do well amongst a hardcore audience.
What about…
Circana does its own purchase intent tracking, and one game that appears highly for them is Pokémon Pokopia (at No.5 in Circana’s rankings). That game combines the likes of Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Pokémon together, which sounds like a potent mix. The data firm also has Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis high on the list, which may have missed out on our chart because it was only announced in the middle of December.
Another game destined to do well is Forza Horizon 6. The Xbox racing game, which is out in May, is No.6 on Steam Wishlists right now. It had its big reveal in January, and that data isn’t included in our analysis above.
Other notable mentions include Invincible VS (which was No.9 for engagement), Saros, Nioh 3 and Onimusha.
So, there we have it. Those are the games to watch according to the data. It feels like a very old-school list, with GTA, James Bond, LEGO and Resident Evil coming out top. It’s like the PS2 era all over again.
Of course, as it’s video games, there are going to be a number of surprise success stories this year. Who could have predicted Helldivers 2 and Palworld in 2024? Or Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 and Arc Raiders in 2025? This industry loves the unexpected. And there’s still more to be revealed, including whatever Nintendo has planned for later in the year.
But in terms of what we know, the above games are the ones generating the most buzz.
Meanwhile…
Nintendo hit 1.9 trillion yen ($12.3 billion) for the nine months ending Decemer 31, a rise of over 99% compared with the previous year. Profit is up 21.3% to $1.9 billion, too. Console sales for Switch 2 are on track to hit its 19 million shipments target for the year, with currently 17.37 million shipped so far. Switch 1 has now overtaken Nintendo DS as the most successful Nintendo games machine of all time.
In terms of games, Mario Kart World has now sold 14 million copies, Pokémon Legends Z-A across Switch 1 and Switch 2 has shifted 12.3 million copies, Donkey Kong Bananza is on 4.25 million sales, and Kirby Air Riders has managed nearly 1.8 million copies sold. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has sold over 1 million copies across Nintendo Switch 1 and 2.
However, Nintendo share price has dropped 11% due to concerns around rising component prices, softer sales in the West over Christmas, and slow sales of Switch 2 software.
Over with Sony, and just over eight million PS5 consoles were sold over the October – December period, making it the best-selling console of the quarter. It’s a 16% decline over the same period in 2024, but it is its sixth year on the market and it was a weaker release slate. PS5 has now sold in around 92.2 million consoles and remains neck-and-neck with what PS4 managed over the same period.
PlayStation Profit grew 19% to 140.8 billion yen ($897 million), helped by higher sales of software and a weaker yen. Ghost of Yotei exceeded sales of its predecessor during the same period, and “significantly” contributed to its results. Sony also cited its live-service games, Helldivers 2 and MLB The Show, as strong contributors.
The rapidly increasing price of PC component costs has caused Valve to delay announcing the price and release dates of its Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware. In a blog post, Valve said it still planned to release its console-like PC and VR headset in the first half of this year, but it needs more time “to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce.”
Ares Interactive has raised $70m in Series A funding to build a “next-generation, cross-platform free-to-play company”. The Austin, Texas-based publisher is led by Mike DeLaet and Niccolo de Masi.
Obsidian Entertainment says The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed, two of their big games of 2025, missed sales forecasts. There are no plans for The Outer Worlds 3, although more games set in the Avowed universe may be coming in the future. In an interview with Bloomberg, Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart said that while Grounded 2, which was also released last year, was a hit, missing targets on The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed led the studio to “think a lot about how much we put into the games, how much we spend on them, how long they take.”
That’s it for today. Once again, thank you for all your support as we sail through 20,000 subscribers. And we look forward to seeing you next week for more news, analysis, interviews and insight.
