The Game Awards 2026 will stream live on Disney+ for the first time. Geoff Keighley announced it today. The show is on Thursday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT), live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Don't worry if you don't have Disney+. It's an extra place to watch, not a replacement. YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok and the rest are all still carrying it like every year.
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If you watch on the TV, a streaming stick like the Fire TV Stick 4K covers Disney+ and YouTube both, so you can pick whichever stream you like.
The quick facts
| Date | Thursday, December 10, 2026 |
| Time | 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT |
| Where | Peacock Theater, Los Angeles |
| New this year | Live on Disney+, first time ever |
| Also streaming on | YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok and more, as usual |
| Nominees | Not announced yet |
What Keighley said
Keighley, who created the show and is its executive producer, said: "We are thrilled to bring The Game Awards to Disney+ audiences worldwide," and that it's about "expanding our reach and engaging more fans than ever."
Disney+ will carry it in North America and in select international markets. The show itself is the usual mix: the awards, world premiere game reveals and live music.
Why Disney+ matters
The Game Awards is already huge. The 2025 show reached more than 171 million livestreams across all platforms, according to the numbers reported this week. So Disney+ isn't there to save it. It's there to reach people who maybe don't open Twitch or YouTube for games, but do have Disney+ on the family TV.
Disney has been around the show for a while anyway. Its games have won awards there, and the Muppets have turned up during the last three ceremonies. So this isn't a total surprise, more like making it official.
A bit of background
Keighley started The Game Awards in 2014, after years of hosting the old Spike Video Game Awards on TV. Since then it's grown into the biggest night of the year for game announcements, with world premiere trailers alongside the trophies. Last year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had a huge awards season, sweeping all of the year's biggest Game of the Year prizes, The Game Awards included. This year, the Golden Joysticks were spread across a lot more games, so it's more open going in.
Nominees: not out yet
The nominees haven't been announced. When they are, fan voting opens on TheGameAwards.com, like every year.
We'll cover the list when it drops. Until then, the closest thing to a preview is how the year's other big awards went. At the Golden Joystick Awards on November 11, Resident Evil Requiem won Ultimate Game of the Year and tied a two-person indie, Meccha Chameleon, for the most wins. Requiem has been out since February, so plenty of people have had time to play it.
There's also a big Switch 2 launch in the mix. Nintendo's Ocarina of Time remake sold over 5.2 million in its first four days, the best start of any Nintendo-published Switch 2 game. If you haven't played it, the Ocarina of Time remake is out now.
And then there's GTA 6, which comes out November 19, three weeks before the show. Whether it counts for this year's awards depends on the show's eligibility rules, and nobody official has said yet how that plays out. If you're getting ready for launch day, our GTA 6 launch checklist has everything.
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How to watch
- Disney+: live, for the first time, in North America and select international markets.
- Free streams: YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok and the other usual platforms. No account needed on most of them.
- Time zones: 7:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. PT, which is 12:30 a.m. on December 11 in the UK.
It usually runs a few hours with all the trailers, so get comfortable. And if you're catching up on the year's big ones before the show, Resident Evil Requiem won the top prize at the Golden Joysticks.
FAQ
When are The Game Awards 2026?
Thursday, December 10, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Can I watch The Game Awards on Disney+?
Yes, for the first time this year. It's also free on YouTube, Twitch and the usual platforms.
When are The Game Awards 2026 nominees announced?
The date hasn't been announced yet. Fan voting opens once the nominees are out.
Sources
- Variety: The Game Awards adds Disney+ to livestream lineup variety.com
- Laughing Place: Disney+ to stream The Game Awards 2026 live for the first time laughingplace.com
- Bleeding Cool: The Game Awards 2026 set for Disney+ livestream on December 10th bleedingcool.com
- The Game Awards thegameawards.com
Written by the WIZY creator
A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.
