The happiest time of year is just around the corner, folks. The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted sponsored by Pot Noodle will be airing December 3rd, and we'll be counting down The Council's 20 most anticipated games.
There's one major change this year, though. We've gone from counting down the top 25 games to the top 20. We've made this decision to ensure each game gets its time in the spotlight, meaning the show will be more enjoyable to watch. Also, The Council have recently unionised and refuse to count more until we agree to give them bathroom breaks, which we simply will not do.
The Council remains, as ever, an inscrutable bunch of journalists, developers, celebrities, creators, streamers, gaming luminaries, and just generally people whose opinion on videogames carries some weight.
How we selected the nominees
Each year, we knock our heads together and puzzle over how to whittle down the thousands of upcoming games into a list of just 100. Several factors go into this, such as how many wishlists a game has on Steam, how interesting a trailer is, the position of the stars at the time a game was first announced, and generally just how excited those of us at PC Gamer are for a title.
The full list awaits below, and the top 20 are nestled within it, but you'll never be able to figure out which ones they are. And if you do, please don't share your findings on the internet or you'll ruin the whole show. You'll notice there are fewer than 100 games, and that's because each year, some come out before the show or unfortunately get cancelled. Try as we might, we can't get The Council to predict the future—we'd all be retired by now if they could.
How the final 20 Most Wanted list is selected
The Council gives each game they're excited for a score from one to five, with one being passingly curious to five being intensely, worryingly hyped. If a member has no interest in a game at all, they simply don't vote on it and that is counted as a zero.
We also take into account how many members of The Council voted for each game so that any with the same average score have a reliable tiebreaker. Some other factors go into the weighting, too, like if we've had no news about a game in a long time or, again, where the stars are and what they think of the whole thing.
And now, presented in alphabetical order, is the long list. Make sure to catch the top 20 when the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted airs December 3.
The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2026 nominees
Company of Heroes - Definitive Edition
Mr Magpie's Harmless Card Game
PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
Thief: The Dark Project Remastered
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis
Vampire: The Masquerade — Eternal Whispers
