Horror fans, clear your calendars. The Horror Game Awards 2026 returns next Friday, November 20, and this year’s show is shaping up to be the biggest night the genre has had in years. Now in its fifth year, the ceremony takes place in front of a sold-out live audience in London and streams worldwide at 7:00 PM GMT (2:00 PM EST) on the show’s official YouTube, Twitch and TikTok channels, alongside hundreds of co-streamers. The headline for horror fans: more than 20 trailers and reveals for upcoming horror games will debut during the broadcast, making the night as much a showcase as an awards ceremony.
The show was founded in 2022 by Phil Dickens and Will Penkeyman, who return to host this year’s ceremony alongside co-producer Ash Millman. Together with developers, media and horror content creators, they will hand out awards across 21 categories covering the past year in horror gaming, including five brand-new awards: Best Cosy Horror Game, Scariest Horror Game of the Year, Best Ongoing Horror Game, The Critics’ Choice Award and Best Adaptation. The ceremony is sponsored by Dead by Daylight, Miss Behaviour and Creative Assembly, and more than 100 horror titles are nominated across the 21 categories.
The presenter lineup mixes developers, press and creators. From the development side, Bloober Team lead writer Grzegorz Like, whose Cronos: The New Dawn is one of the year’s most talked-about horror releases, and Supermassive Games’ Tara Bunker are on the bill. They are joined by BBC gaming presenter Mel Ramsey, former PlayStation Access host Rosie Caddick, Bloody Disgusting’s Harrison Abbott, and creators including SuperHorrorBro, Ryan Hollinger, SphereHunter, Emortalmarcus, Luigikid, Tangomushi and GhostArcade.
A stacked Game of the Year race
The Game of the Year race is genuinely stacked, with 16 nominees in the running. Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem and Tarsier Studios’ REANIMAL lead the conversation, and REANIMAL also leads the entire show with 10 nominations. The field also includes Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker, Saber Interactive’s Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, Supermassive’s Directive 8020, Team Ninja’s Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake, Screen Burn’s Silent Hill: Townfall and Lunar Software’s ROUTINE, alongside Endacopia, Heaven Does Not Respond, No Means Nothing, Offering App, Project Songbird, Silver Pines, The Skin Stapler and Tenebris Somnia. It is a field that spans big-budget horror, remakes and independent games, which is exactly the point of a show built to cover the whole genre.
Resident Evil Requiem arrives at the show already carrying silverware, having swept the Golden Joystick Awards earlier this week. Our Resident Evil Requiem Sweeps the Golden Joystick Awards — Full Winners List for 2026 is a useful primer for the state of play heading into November 20. Bloober Team’s presence is also worth watching: as well as Like presenting, the studio’s Cronos: The New Dawn universe is expanding, with the The Warden’s Origin Story Gets a Date — Cronos: Lazarus DLC Launches December 3 for $9.99 DLC arriving next month.
How to watch the Horror Game Awards 2026
The full nominations were revealed in the official announcement video, which you can watch below. Voting is open now on the show’s official site, and the ceremony itself streams on Friday, November 20 at 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST / 7:00 PM GMT / 8:00 PM CET.
For horror fans, the Horror Game Awards has become the genre’s own night, and this year’s show is timed to ride a wave of awards-season attention. The Golden Joystick Awards Are This Wednesday — Here’s How to Watch the 44th Show Live crowned its winners just this week, and the Horror Game Awards now gets the last word on the year in horror, with 20-plus reveals that could easily steal the show from the trophies themselves. We will be watching on November 20 and rounding up every reveal as it lands.
Source: The Horror Game Awards 2026 announcement on GamesPress (via Bonfire PR). You can also find the full list of nominees and voting details on the official Horror Game Awards site.
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