Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards with 12 nominations, making it the most nominated debut game in BAFTA Games Awards history. The French action RPG from Sandfall Interactive now stands ahead of a field that includes Dispatch with nine nominations, Ghost of Yōtei with eight, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach with seven.
The breadth of recognition reflects both the title's sustained momentum across the industry and an industry reshaping itself with a vibrant mix of established studios standing alongside a wide range of independent studios, and a number of development teams earning nominations for the first time. 17 studios have been nominated for the first time, signalling a shift in how the games industry rewards creativity across different scales and structures.
The performance categories saw particular volatility this year. Aaron Paul, Charlie Cox and Jeffrey Wright are among the first-time performance nominees. Paul appears for his voice role in Dispatch, whilst Daredevil actor Cox earned a supporting actor nomination for his work in Clair Obscur. Breaking Bad star Paul's nomination exemplifies how games now attract A-list talent from film and television at the casting stage.
The 22nd BAFTA Games Awards will take place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London on Friday 17 April 2026. The Awards will be available to watch on BAFTA YouTube. The timing places this ceremony within the broader London Games Festival, which runs from 13 April to 19 April across the UK capital.
Clair Obscur arrives at the BAFTA ceremony having already accumulated significant recognition. The French action adventure game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at the 12th Game Awards in December, entering that ceremony with 12 total nominations and leaving with 9. More recently, the title won Game of the Year at the 29th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards 2026, securing five awards total including Art Direction and Game Direction, adding to a nine-award sweep at The Game Awards 2025.
The breadth of Clair Obscur's nomination slate suggests the game resonates across technical craft disciplines. It competes for Best Game alongside Dispatch, Ghost of Yotei, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Blue Prince and Arc Raiders. Only Indiana Jones, at six nominations, comes close to the top contenders' tallies in supporting categories.
The nomination of 42 games across 17 categories represents a deliberate curatorial exercise by BAFTA's games committee. A total of 42 games across 17 categories were nominated, selected from 255 games that were considered by BAFTA members this year, released between November 16, 2024 and November 14, 2025. This selectivity underscores that awards bodies remain gatekeepers; most released games never reach voters' screens.
For smaller studios and debut titles, the BAFTA nod carries substantial weight. Dispatch, made by former Telltale team members at AdHoc Studio, earned nine nominations including a Debut Game slot. Blue Prince, from developer Dogubomb, rounds out the debut category and offers an entirely different gameplay philosophy than the action-oriented front-runners. This variety suggests BAFTA's electorate rewards craft across genre boundaries.
Winners are determined through a voting process weighted toward different groups. Following the nominations announcement, BAFTA members will vote for the winners in Best Game and British Game categories whilst BAFTA juries will vote for winners in all other categories. This two-tier system ostensibly ensures peer recognition in prestigious categories whilst allowing specialist judges to assess technical craft.