Gamescom Award 2026 Winners Revealed: CD Projekt RED and SEGA Win Three Trophies Each, GDQ Takes Heart of Gaming

CD Projekt RED and SEGA each collected three trophies as the gamescom award 2026 winners were announced on Friday, August 28, at the gamescom studio powered by IGN in Cologne. The 19-category ceremony capped the opening stretch of gamescom week, with Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword leading the platform races by taking both Best Gameplay and Best Sony PlayStation Game, Ubisoft's Rayman Legends Retold winning Best Nintendo Switch 2 Game, and Games Done Quick (GDQ) honoured with the special HEART OF GAMING award.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt drove CD Projekt RED's haul. Attendees voted the announcement of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered and the new Songs of the Past DLC as the Best Trailer / Announcement from gamescom Opening Night Live, and the Pin & Medallion merch from the DLC booth as Best Merchandise. The jury also awarded CD Projekt RED Best Booth for the Songs of the Past presence on the show floor.

SEGA matched that count by sweeping the Best PC Game trophy with Creative Assembly's Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000, claiming Best Audio for Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation 2, and earning the jury's Best Lineup award for the breadth of titles it brought to Cologne this year.

Capcom walked away with two trophies, both for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which locked in Best Gameplay alongside the Best PlayStation Game category. Ubisoft picked up two as well, with Rayman Legends Retold winning Best Nintendo Switch 2 Game and the Ubisoft Business Lounge taking the jury's Best Business Booth award.

METRO 2039 from 4A Games and Deep Silver won Best Visuals, Wanderburg from Randwerk and Sidekick Publishing was voted Most Entertaining, Eclipse Glow Games' Tides of Annihilation took Most Epic, Finding Polka by lidlocks and Parco Games won Most Wholesome, and SOKO 1977: Anti-Terror Task Force from Paintbucket Games and the Federal Agency for Civic Education was honoured in the Games for Impact category. Forza Horizon 6 by Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios won Best Microsoft Xbox Game, Where Winds Meet by Everstone Studio and NetEase Games took Best Mobile Game, and Arknights: Endfield by GRYPHLINE won the consumer-voted Best Booth award.

The HEART OF GAMING special jury prize went to Games Done Quick, the charity speedrunning organisation that has raised more than 50 million dollars for good causes over its history. Gamescom GDQ, the first European edition of the speedrun marathon, is running from August 28 to 30 at Koelnmesse in Cologne, with donations and sponsorship proceeds going to Gaming for Democracy, an initiative that promotes democratic values and social engagement through gaming culture.

The full list of winners, including jury and consumer award splits, is published on the official gamescom site at https://www.gamescom.global/en/gamescom-award-2026-the-winners-are, alongside the gamescom award programme page at https://www.gamescom.de/en/gamescom/gamescom-award. The announcement was issued by the Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur, the foundation that organises the gamescom award together with Koelnmesse and game — the German Games Industry Association.

gamescom 2026 itself runs from August 26 to August 30 at Koelnmesse in Cologne, with the show floor fully sold out for the first time and more than 1,600 exhibitors from 67 countries on site, according to the event organiser's press materials.