Crimson Desert's chances of being nominated for GOTY are slim to none

Crimson Deserts early critical reception may have already jeopardized the new RPG's ability to be nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2026. For Crimson Desert to have any chance of being nominated for the top gong at TGA 2026, it would have to make history and do something no game has ever done before.

In the months leading up to Crimson Desertreleased, the RPG got a huge hype. The review embargo was lifted a day before the March 19, 2026 release date, and to the surprise of many players, it was met with more mediocre reviews than expected. On review aggregators Metacritic and OpenCritic, it has scores of 78 and 79 respectively at the time of writing. While this isn't exactly a bad score, it's far from the level many expected from the game based on its pre-release hype. Despite the reviews, Crimson Desert has launched with huge players, suggesting that the critical reception hasn't hurt the number of players jumping in to try it out for themselves.

Crimson Desert Trick to enter locked buildings

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The Crimson Desert Trick is an easy way to get into locked buildings

Players in the latest action-adventure game Crimson Desert discover a trick that allows them to easily enter locked buildings.

Crimson Desert would become the lowest ranked GOTY nominee ever

Although there are many players who enjoy their time with Crimson Desert so far, the chance of becoming a GOTY nominee at The Game Awards 2026 is already slim, assuming nothing changes with its future critical reception. If nominated for the top prize, it would be the lowest-ranked Game of the Year nomination in Game Awards history with its 78 Metascore. Currently, Black Myth: Wukong holds that title with 81, with other titles such as Death Stranding (82) and Ghost of Tsushima (83) also drives it close. An excellent critical reception is a prerequisite for a Game of the Year nomination, and Crimson Desert just misses the mark in this regard. A surprise is of course possible, but it would break historical precedent for The Game Awards. It would have to be the first game in history to be nominated with a Metascore in the 70s, which feels very unlikely at this point.

Its chances of actually winning the Game of the Year award are even slimmer. Dragon Age: Inquisitionthe first ever recipient of the award, won with just an 85 Metascore, the lowest to date. The last three winners, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Astro Botand Baldur's Gate 3won with a Metascore of 92, 94 and 96 respectively. The bar is higher than it has ever been before, and it seems Crimson Desert is far too polarizing to stand any real chance of winning the award, if it somehow defied the odds to be nominated in the first place.

All this is not to suggest that Crimson Desert won't get any recognition when The Game Awards 2026 rolls around later this year. The reception is strong enough that it's likely to show up somewhere in the nominations, but Game of the Year feels like a stretch unless something dramatically changes with the reviews from here on out.

There is no questioning Crimson Deserts ambition and scale, although it is its narrative and core gameplay design that face the most criticism from players and critics alike. How much of this will be taken up in Crimson DesertPost-launch support remains to be seen, though this is unlikely to affect Game of the Year prospects for later this year, regardless.