Five year curse hard to break? The final hope of American studios lies entirely in 'GTA6'

The 2025 TGA Awards ceremony ended with "Light and Shadow: Expedition 33" winning the Game of the Year title. This result continues a highly anticipated industry phenomenon: American game studios have failed to bring home the TGA Game of the Year trophy for five consecutive years.

Despite having the world's largest and most resource rich developer lineup, and never absent from award ceremonies, the highest honor of Game of the Year has continued to flow overseas in recent years. Looking back at history, the dominance of American studios lasted until 2020 (The Last of Us Part II). Since then, the winners and their respective regions from previous years are as follows:

2021: "Double Up" - Hazelight Studios (Sweden)

2022: Elden Ring - FromSoftware (Japan)

2023: Bode's Gate 3- Laryan Studio (Belgium)

2024: Space Robotics - Team Asobi (Japan)

2025: Light and Shadow: Expedition 33- Sandfall Interactive (France)

This pattern is in stark contrast to the strong performances of American works from 2016 to 2020, such as Overwatch, God of War, and The Last of Us Part II.

Now, the biggest hope of breaking the five-year championship drought undoubtedly lies on the shoulders of the yet to be released GTA6. If it can participate in the 2026 TGA competition as scheduled, it will undoubtedly become the top seeded player for the Game of the Year award.

However, next year's competition will not be smooth sailing. The race track is already surrounded by wolves: the highly stylized action packed domestic masterpiece "Blade of Shadows: Zero", Capcom's heavyweight comeback "Resident Evil 9: Requiem", and other dark horses that have not yet emerged will all compete fiercely in 2026. The ultimate destination of TGA's trophy is far from conclusive at this moment.