Here are all of the 2026 Canadian Game Awards winners

The 2026 Canadian Game Awards were held in Toronto last night, honouring some of the best Canadian-made games from 2025.

Hosted by Canadian Mass Effect stars Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer (female and male Commander Shepard, respectively), the ceremony featured numerous developers and content creators receiving awards, as well as a handful of first looks at upcoming games. Notably, Montreal-based Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight, a Deep South-set action-adventure game, took home the most hardware, including Game of the Year.

See below for the full list of winners (bolded) among the nominees:

Game of the Year

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)

Studio of the Year

• Compulsion Games (Montreal, Que.)
• Digital Extremes (London, Ont.)
• Rogue Factor (Montreal, Que.)
• Tribute Games (Montreal, Que.)
• Yellow Brick Games (Quebec City, Que.)

Best Indie Game

• Ambrosia Sky: Act One (Soft Rains — Toronto, Ont.)
• Ctrl Alt Deal (Only By Midnight — Edmonton, Alta.)
• Fresh Tracks (Buffalo Buffalo — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.) [the studio has sadly shut down]

Best Game Design

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — a coalition of four global studios that includes Montreal’s Motive)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best Narrative

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)

Best Art Direction

• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• 33 Immortals (Thunder Lotus Games — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Entertainment Software Association of Canada Fan Choice Award

Below is the top five out of a list of dozens that fans could vote on:

1. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal — Montreal, Que.)
2. Warframe: The Old Peace (Digital Extremes — London, Ont.)
3. Fresh Tracks (Buffalo Buffalo — Vancouver, B.C.)
4. Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
5. Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)

Best Audio Design

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — a coalition of four global studios that includes Montreal’s Motive)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best Score/Soundtrack

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (The Flight and Montreal’s Teke: Teke)
• Eternal Strands (Austin Wintory)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Montreal’s Milk & Bone and Ruth Radelet)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tee Lopes)
• South of Midnight (Olivier Derivière)

Best Performance

• Erica Luttrell as Melissa Mills in Battlefield 6 (Toronto, Ont.)
• Olivia Lepore as Swann Holloway in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Montreal, Que.)
• Momona Tamada as Oni-yuri in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Peter Shinkoda as Fujibayashi Nagato in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Montreal, Que.)
• Elias Toufexis as Rémi in Hell is Us (Montreal, Que.)

Best Console Game

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — a coalition of four global studios that includes Montreal’s Motive)
• Hell is Us (Rogue Factor — Montreal, Que.)
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Tribute Games — Montreal, Que.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)

Best PC Game

• Aloft (Astrolabe Interactive — Montreal, Que.)
• Ambrosia Sky: Act One (Soft Rains — Toronto, Ont.)
• Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios — a coalition of four global studios that includes Montreal’s Motive)
• Eternal Strands (Yellow Brick Games — Quebec City, Que.)
• Foundation (Polymorph Games — Quebec City, Que.)

Best Mobile Game

• EA Sports FC 26 Mobile (EA Canada — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Elsewhere Electric (Games by Stitch — Toronto, Ont.)
• LHEA and the Word Spirit (Soul Fuel Games — Centre-du-Quebec, Que.)
• Rainbow Six Mobile (Ubisoft Montreal — Montreal, Que.)

Best VR/AR Game

• Chronostrike (Pentachromatic Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Elsewhere Electric (Games by Stitch — Toronto, Ont.)
• Fruit Golf (Coal Car Studio — Vancouver, B.C.)
• Prison Boss Prohibition (Trebuchet — Montreal, Que.)
• Verse VR (Lofty Sky Entertainment — Toronto, Ont.)

Best Esports Event

• Battle of BC 7 (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Call of Duty Champs (Kitchener, Ont.)
• Electric Clash 2025 (Toronto, Ont.)
• Raptors GC Tournament (Toronto, Ont.)
• Valorant Masters Toronto 2025 (Toronto, Ont.)

Best Esports Player

• Adam “mada” Pampuch (Canada)
• Brandon “Dashy” Otell (Canada)
• Keith “NAF” Markovic (Canada)
• Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken (Kelowna, B.C.)
• Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski (Canada)

Best Esports Coach

• Antonin “AEC” Tran (Montreal, Que.)
• Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling (Vancouver, B.C.)
• Loic “Effys” Sauvageau (Quebec)
• Mervin-Angelo “Dayos” Lachica (Ontario)
• Shaun Byrne (Windsor, Ont.)

Best Esports and Gaming Organization

• Raptors GC (Toronto, Ont.)
• Shopify Rebellion (Toronto, Ont.)
• Toronto Ultra/KOI/OverActive Media (Toronto, Ont.)
• Vancouver Surge (Vancouver, B.C.)

Best Content Creator

• Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen (Montreal, Que.)
• Ashley Roboto (Southern Ontario)
• Nicholas “NickEh30” Amyoony (Halifax, N.S.)
• Stef Sanjati (Toronto, Ont.)
• Victor Lucas/Electric Playground (Vancouver, B.C.) [also received the inaugural Game Changer Award]

Innovation in Accessibility

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Quebec — Quebec City, Que.)
• EA Sports FC26 (EA Vancouver — Vancouver, B.C.)
• South of Midnight (Compulsion Games — Montreal, Que.)
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune — Montreal, Que.)
• Wanderstop (Ivy Road — Vancouver, B.C.)

In addition to the awards and fun banter from the Shepards, some of the games that were featured in “first looks” include Toronto-based Cococucumber’s Echo Generation 2 (releasing May 27), Halifax-based Paracosm’s Dagger Woods VR (TBA, but based on Nova Scotia folklore) and a new trailer for Montreal-based Heartloop Games’ Poly Fighter.

What was your favourite Canadian game that either won awards or was nominated for them? Let us know in the comments.

For more on Canadian games, check out our big museum gallery-inspired feature on nearly 20 games set in Canada, our interview with a new Edmonton studio formed by BioWare veterans and/or our 15th anniversary retrospective on Montreal-based Outlast developer Red Barrels. 

Image credit: Xbox