DevGAMM Awards 2026 Sets a New Record: 1,001 Games from 80 Countries
This year’s DevGAMM Awards competition has reached a historic milestone: for the first time ever, the number of submitted games has surpassed 1,001 entries. In total, the Awards received 1,088 submissions. It’s a 67% increase compared to last year!
This record-breaking year also became the most international in DevGAMM Awards history. Developers from 80 countries submitted their projects, compared to 69 countries last year. The competition brought together 987 unique teams and expanded its global reach to 542 cities.
The countries with the highest number of submissions were the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain and China.
01.What Games Are Competing in DevGAMM Awards 2026?
The DevGAMM Awards competition remains a platform for games at every stage of development: from early concepts to a full release, helping emerging teams gain visibility and receive meaningful feedback from the gamedev experts.
Games by development stage:
- Demo / Vertical Slice – 523 games
- Released – 233 games
- Release Candidate – 131 games
- Early Access / Soft Launch – 67 games
- Prototype – 47 games
The majority of participating projects come from small and independent teams:
- solo developer – 338 games
- 2-5 developers – 426 games
- 6-10 developers – 159 games
- 11-20 developers – 53 games
- 21-50 developers – 25 games
Among development technologies, the leading engines are:
- Unity – 543 games
- Unreal Engine – 205 games
- Godot – 121 games
- Other technologies – 132 games
The most represented genres this year are Adventure, Action and Roguelike.
02.New Categories Highlight Meaningful Projects
Continuing our tradition of celebrating innovation, DevGAMM Awards introduced four new categories – Best Small Team Game, Best Game In Early Development, Meaningful Game And Devgamm Choice.
The new Meaningful Game category, supported by PlayPraxis, highlighted projects exploring important human and social topics through interactive experiences. The most popular themes among submitted games were:
- Empathy – 114 games
- Culture – 110 games
- Relationships – 109 games
- Philosophy – 104 games
- Identity – 89 games
- Mental Health – 88 games
- Social Impact – 87 games
- Community – 73 games
- Trauma – 73 games
- Diversity – 69 games
03.Entries by Award Category
This edition features a total prize pool of $100,000 in cash, supported by Scorewarrior, plus an additional $20,000+ in sponsored category prizes from Epic Games Store, Unreal Engine, tinyBuild, and Unity.
The number of submissions across some categories:
- Grand Prize – 1,001
- Excellence in Games Design – 772
- Excellence in Visual Art – 700
- Best Small Team Game – 674
- Excellence in Narrative – 439
- Excellence in Audio – 432
- Best Game in Early Development – 434
- Meaningful Game – 366
- Most Anticipated Game – 349
- Best Mobile Game – 55
- Best Game From Portugal – 37
04.DevGAMM Awards 2026 Jury
This year’s competition is evaluated by 191 industry professionals from around the world, making this the most diverse jury in DevGAMM Awards history. The panel represents 40 countries and 113 cities, including 41% newcomers. On top of that, 50 publishing experts are bringing their market expertise to the evaluation process, helping teams better understand their games’ potential and opportunities.
05.What’s Next?
The next stage of DevGAMM Awards 2026 is already underway. The jury have started reviewing submissions, analyzing projects, and preparing feedback for participating teams.
The nominees will be announced on October 22. All finalists will be invited to the awards ceremony at DevGAMM Lisbon 2026 on November 18, with an official streaming partner, IGN, to bring the finale to an even wider audience.
Thank you to all developers, judges, and partners who made this record-breaking year possible. We can’t wait to celebrate the best games of 2026 together 🧡
