For our list of the best video games of 2025, click here.
2026 has been a strange, strained year for the video-game industry. The squeeze of the AI industry and the Trump administration’s tariffs has driven the cost of components so high that the price of video games consoles has gone up, not down. Seeking to curb developments costs, Microsoft has announced a slew of layoffs and studio closures. Sony recently announced it will phase out physical releases of its games altogether. Nintendo, having launched the bestselling console of all time with the Switch 2 last year, has mostly squandered its lead, with a notably anemic lineup of first-party games as the system reaches its first birthday. And developers, critics, and gamers alike are preparing for the long-awaited release of what will almost to be one of the biggest video games of all time: Grand Theft Auto VI, which finally arrives in November.
Amid all the industry’s hardships and reductions, rounding up 2026’s best games is more of a bummer than usual. Several of the games on this list were created by studios that have already been affected by layoffs; one studio was shuttered altogether. But at a time of great transition, there are still some remarkable games to be played, from unforgettable indies to AAA games that continue to drive the medium forward.
Here are the best video games of 2026 so far:
12. Life is Strange: Reunion (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC)
What a long, strange trip it’s been. After last year’s polarizing (and underrated!) Life is Strange: Double Exposure frustrated longtime fans by punting on the fate of fan-favorite character Chloe Price, Reunion offers a belated love letter by putting Chloe’s relationship with heroine Max Caulfield at the center of Reunion’s narrative. You are, once again, using Max’s time-travel powers to investigate a mystery: This time, a runaway fire that threatens to wipe out Max’s college campus and many of the people she loves. But after a slow start that leans a little too heavily on fan service (and contains some distracting technical snafus), Reunion comes into its own, building on the franchise’s own history by going deeper into well-drawn recurring characters and offering a thoughtful meditation on the unforeseen consequences of trying to fix the unfixable. If this is, as it seems to be, Max and Chloe’s last adventure, it’s a worthy sendoff.