BAFTA Games Awards 2026: Clair Obscur Leads 12 Nominations — What to Watch on April 17
The 22nd BAFTA Games Awards land April 17 in London. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads with 12 nominations across 42 games in 17 categories.
One Week Until Gaming's Most Prestigious UK Ceremony
The 22nd BAFTA Games Awards ceremony is one week away. On April 17, 2026, Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre will host the biggest night in British gaming — and for the first time, content creator Elz the Witch steps in as host, bringing a different energy to a ceremony that's traditionally skewed toward industry insiders. The ceremony will stream live on BAFTA's YouTube channel, so the entire global gaming community can watch without tickets.
With 42 different games nominated across 17 categories, this year's field reflects both the breadth of 2025's gaming output and the industry's evolving tastes. Here's what to know before April 17.
The Clear Frontrunner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Twelve nominations. That's the extraordinary lead that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the French RPG from Sandfall Interactive, carries into the BAFTA ceremony. For a studio's debut title — and a European RPG challenging the category's long-time Japanese dominance — that nomination count is a genuine cultural moment in game design. Expedition 33 collected nominations across multiple categories including narrative, artistic achievement, and multiple performance nods for Ben Starr, Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, and Kirsty Rider.
If there's a story of 2025's game design that the BAFTA nominations validate unambiguously, it's Expedition 33.
The Rest of the Competitive Field
Behind Expedition 33, the nomination landscape is genuinely competitive across several strong titles:
**Dispatch** (9 nominations) — the superhero narrative comedy featuring Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright has been a critical darling since its release. Nine nominations reflect how strongly it landed with both players and critics alike.
**Ghost of Yōtei** (8 nominations) — Sucker Punch's follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima brings an open-world action adventure set in Hokkaido. Erika Ishii's performance earned a first-time BAFTA nomination, part of a broader pattern at this year's ceremony.
**Death Stranding 2: On the Beach** (7 nominations) — Hideo Kojima's continuation proves the universe still has compelling places to go.
**Indiana Jones and the Great Circle** (6 nominations) and **Arc Raiders** (5 nominations) round out the leading nominees.
A Performance Category Worth Watching
Nine of twelve performance nominees are first-time BAFTA nominees — a striking statistic that speaks to the strength of new voices in game narrative this year. Beyond the Expedition 33 cast, Tom McKay (Kingdom Come: Deliverance II) and Alix Wilton Regan (Lies of P: Overture) bring recognized screen acting careers to game performance in ways that continue blurring the line between game and film/TV work.
How to Watch
The ceremony is April 17, 2026 at Queen Elizabeth Hall and streams live on BAFTA's YouTube channel. With Expedition 33 carrying 12 nominations into the night, it looks positioned to make history — but Dispatch and Ghost of Yōtei are both strong enough across their respective categories to make the evening genuinely unpredictable.
Set a reminder. This one's worth watching.
Sources: BAFTA Games Awards official nominations (March 2026), Game Informer (March 16, 2026), Hollywood Reporter (2026), Bleeding Cool (2026)