Independent arts charity BAFTA has revealed all 64 games that have made it onto the Longlist for the 2026 BAFTA Game Awards.

Among the selected titles, several have established their esports ecosystem this year, from shooters such as Marvel Rivals to sport simulators like EA FC 26.

Marvel Rivals, one of the nominated esports titles, Marvel Rivals is a popular hero shooter that has fostered a competitive scene in 2025. It has held community events such as the seasonal Championships and has invited the best teams from around the world to compete in its professional circuit, Marvel Rivals Ignite.

Another featured title, Battlefield 6, is a large-scale first-person shooter game that was released back in October this year. Following the launch of REDSEC battle royale mode, EA revealed a $1m (~£763,850) esports circuit featuring a community-driven Open Series and a competitive Elite Series.

Call of Duty also made it to the Longlist thanks to the latest installment in the franchise, Black Ops 7. The longstanding series boasts an extensive esports history due to the Call of Duty League, which is now entering its 2026 season and continues to foster a franchised competitive ecosystem.

Various sports simulators were also including such as EA FC 26 and F1 25. EA FC 26 holds various esports circuits, including the FC Pro series, which hosted its inaugural World Championship in Germany in 2024. Additionally, EA has rolled out plans for next year, including a refreshed format for the ePremier League.

F1 25 was one of the last esports titles, which is a home to events such as the F1 Sim Racing World Championship, featuring the world’s best racing esports teams and players.

The full list of games that have been selected can be found at the BAFTA Game Awards website.

Founded in 2004, the BAFTA Game Awards is an annual show celebrating the best games released within the year.

This year’s Longlist was selected by more than 1,700 BAFTA members, which is comprised of professionals from across the gaming industry. A total of 64 titles are nominated across 17 award categories, including Game Design, Narrative, Artistic Achievement, Best Game and more.

Tara Saunders, chair of BAFTA’s Games committee, said: “The BAFTA Games Awards
longlists offer a fantastic opportunity to spotlight the creativity and craft shaping this year’s
games.

“This list showcases a wide range of games to dive into over the holiday season, honours the teams behind these standout titles, and shines a light on the incredible skill across our whole industry.”

Voting for nominations will begin in February, and the shortlisted titles will be announced on March 12th, 2026. BAFTA members will then vote on Best Game and British Game, while the jury will decide the winners of the remaining categories.

All the winners will be revealed at the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards on April 17th, 2026.

European esports organisation OG Esports has entered a strategic partnership with online sports bookmaker Melbet.

According to the announcement, the bookmaker becomes a ‘key supporter of OG’s competitive ambitions’ as the organisation begins a new chapter with its Southeast Asian Dota 2 roster.

The partnership between the two parties also aims to align with OG Esports’ ‘broader strategy to re-establish global competitive momentum’ while investing in regions that drive ‘the future of esports viewership’.

OG Esports and Melbet will collaborate on creating a range of content that follows the journey of its Dota 2 roster, signed in November. The partnership also includes community-led activations, along with supporting the team as it competes throughout the season.

“Partnering with Melbet is a powerful step in our long-term commitment ot the SEA region,” said Xavier Oswald, CEO of OG Esports. “With Melbet at our side, we want to give local players, creators, and fans the platform they deserve.”

Partnering with Melbet is the first deal secured by OG Esports following its acquisition by The Chiliz Group in September. The parent company of fan token platform Socios.com purchased a 51% stake in the organisation founded in 2015.

Melbet is no stranger to the world of Dota 2 esports. In April, the bookmaker partnered with TALON Esports to become an official sportsbook partner of the organisation’s Dota 2 team.

OG Esports remains a staple of the Dota 2 esports ecosystem, having fielded rosters in Valve’s MOBA title for the past decade.

In 2018 and 2019, the organisation won The International, becoming the only organisation to win the season-ending tournament two years in a row.

The signing of its new roster marks a new chapter for OG Esports as it looks to expand its presence within the Southeast Asian market. The new lineup has already competed in two high-profile events, scoring top-six finishes at PGL Wallachia Season 6 and BLAST Slam V.

Brazilian esports organisation paiN Gaming has benched David ‘dav1deuS‘ Tapia and Franco ‘dgt‘ Garcia from its Counter-Strike 2 roster.

The move follows the organisation’s Stage 3 exit at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, failing to qualify for the playoffs as a result.

The South American side scored a breakthrough top-four finish at the BLAST.tv Austin Major, laying the foundations for a strong second half of the year. However, despite its deep run, paiN Gaming struggled to replicate the success in other Tier 1 tournaments.

Failure to qualify for the BLAST Open London playoffs, along with early exits from IEM Cologne 2025 and IEM Chengdu 2025, saw the team drop down the Valve Regional Standings (VRS). December’s standings saw the team drop to 15th in the global standings, having reached a peak of 11th in February.

During the second half of 2025, paiN Gaming scored a solitary semi-final appearance at BLAST Rivals Fall 2025, hoping a solid display would lead to another deep run at the Major.

Starting the Major in Stage 3, the team won its opening contest against 3DMAX, before recording two defeats at the hands of G2 Esports and NAVI. A 2-0 loss to B8 in round four brought an end to paiN Gaming’s Major campaign, scoring a 1-3 record and $20,000 (~£15,022) in prize money.

With two open places on its starting lineup, paiN Gaming looks to revamp its roster with a pair of recruits looking to help the team reach the heights it achieved in Austin.

Once the Major is concluded, several teams are expected to make changes before attention turns to the start of the 2026 season. The 2026 Tier 1 event calendar kicks off with BLAST Bounty Winter taking place between January 13th to 28th.

Esports tournament organiser BLAST has announced a multi-year partnership with iGaming company BetBoom.

The deal will see the company become a licensed media rights holder and the exclusive betting partner of Brazilian and LATAM local language broadcasts of BLAST Premier and BLAST Slam circuits.

As part of the collaboration between the two parties, BetBoom will work with content creators from across South America on various initiatives designed to expand the presence of the Counter-Strike and Dota 2 circuits in the region.

Additionally, BetBoom becomes the exclusive media rights holder ‘from 2026 onwards,’ with BLAST and the company joining forces to create content and host a range of activations.

“This landmark deal will bring BLAST tournaments and the BetBoom brand to even wider audiences across Brazil and LATAM,” said Alexander Lewin, Senior Vice President of Commercial at BLAST.

“BetBoom, with its focus on top-quality entertainment, will deliver a fantastic product to this very passionate community. We look forward to working closely with them and investing further in bringing more events and activity to the region in the future.”

With BLAST Premier and BLAST Slam seasons rounding out its 2025 seasons, BLAST has continued expanding its partnership portfolio. In November, the tournament organiser secured a multi-year deal with corporate payment company Corpay.

BetBoom is no stranger to the world of esports. The company sponsors the BetBoom Team Dota 2 roster, Team Spirit, and Brazilian esports organisation FURIA.

Throughout 2025, BLAST has continued to expand its presence across the world, cementing its place as one of the scene’s biggest tournament organisers. In August, it inked a deal with the Singapore Tourism Board to bring four events to the country, which started with BLAST Slam IV.

June saw it unveil a three-year partnership with GamingMalta to host BLAST Bounty and BLAST Slam tournaments on the island until 2027.

Arena of Valor has surpassed rival mobile esports title Honor of Kings in International Championship viewership this year.

According to data platform Esports Charts, this year’s Honor of Kings crowning international event reached a peak of over 696,000 viewers, while Arena of Valor saw viewership rise to over 742,000.

Arena of Valor, formerly Strike of Kings, was originally launched in 2016 as the international version of Honor of Kings, which debuted in China a year prior.

Honor of Kings would not see its global debut until nearly a decade after its original launch, finally rolling out to international audiences on June 20th, 2024. Despite Honor of Kings’ global expansion strategy, which includes developing an esports ecosystem, Arena of Valor’s season-ending world championship still remained more popular among viewers in 2025.

Esports Charts reports that the viewership for the Arena of Valor International Championship 2025 peaked during the Final Day Playoffs. Furthermore, the event accumulated over 21.6m hours watched, with an average viewership of nearly 184,000 across more than 117 hours of airtime.

The International Championship is now the third most popular Arena of Valor event of 2025, behind Arena of Glory Winter and Summer, in terms of peak viewership.

The tournament also ranks as the seventh most popular Arena of Valor event of all time, in terms of peak viewership, surpassed by tournaments like the 2021 Championship (~879,500), and the 2023 Premier League (~974,600).

The Arena of Valor scene continues to grow in popularity despite facing setbacks this year. The Indonesian League, otherwise known as the Star League, held its final season during Spring 2025, which ended on May 11th before being shuttered. As a result, many Indonesian teams were absent from this year’s world championship for the first time.

The Honor of Kings International Championship 2025 reached an average viewership of roughly 29,100 across an airtime of over 110 hours, with 3.2m hours of watch time.

The International Championship 2025 proved to be the most popular Honor of Kings event this year, racing past the World Cup and Invitational Season 3 for peak viewership. It has also become the most popular Honor of King’s event of all time outside of China, smashing the 2024 peak of over 480,000 viewers achieved in the Invitational Midseason.

It’s worth noting that the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025 does not include Chinese teams. In 2024, the mobile title introduced a new global esports plan, bringing in an invitational series and championship, while providing Chinese teams with their own Grand Finals.

The mobile game has seen significant growth this year in terms of its international presence, and Level Infinite has shown no signs of slowing down as it continues to support its new ecosystem in 2025.

Riot Games has officially announced the return of the Spotlight Series Americas, a VCT Off//Season event celebrating inclusivity and diversity within the competitive VALORANT scene.

Taking place in Monterrey, Mexico from December 12th to 14th, the tournament will feature four mixed-gender teams competing for a share of the $25,000 (~£18,766) prize pool.

The 2025 Spotlight Series Americas will start off with a single round-robin Group Stage, where each team will play three best-of-three matches. The results from this phase will determine the seeding for the following single-elimination bracket.

All Semifinals series will also be best-of-three, while the Grand Final will take place on December 14th as a single best-of-five clash.

Each match day will begin at 2:00 PM CST (8:00 PM BST), and it will be streamed in both English and Spanish languages across VALORANT’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.

According to the official announcement by Riot Games, the event will also offer co-streaming opportunities for creators from all regions.

While the lineups are yet to be confirmed, the four competing teams have already been chosen. Aside from 100 Thieves, which will field players from both of its rosters, the remaining three squads will be a combination of ENVY x FlyQuest, KRÜ x LYON, and Winthrop x Shopify Rebellion.

Each roster is required to include at least two Game Changers as well as two VCT players, giving emerging talents an additional opportunity to showcase their gameplay. The tournament were also held across both EMEA and the Pacific regions, although the format and dates were different.

The Pacific event took place in late October during the Gwangju Esports Series Asia, while the EMEA region opted for a new mixed-gender format called Blender Spotlight. Initially set to have an offline LAN final in Paris, the match will now be played online due to logistical challenges and visa issues.