Gayming Awards Meet the Nominees: Best LGBTQ+ Character Award

The best video games are often made by their characters, which is why we cannot wait to award one digital trailblazer the title of Best LGBTQ+ Character at the upcoming 2026 Gayming Awards!

This year’s list of nominees is truly stacked; from mythical warriors to savvy survivors, the category is filled with every kind of LGBTQ+ character imaginable. Yet while they each may be a different kind of icon, what unites them all is the impact they have on LGBTQ+ players today. We need inclusive representation now more than ever! And through each of their stories, these characters help make the gaming industry more inclusive for us all. 

Let’s take a deeper look at all of these nominees now and try to figure out who’ll be taking home the gold at this year’s Gayming Awards!

Eddie & Volt, Date Everything!

Few 2026 games are as queer as Date Everything!, with the dating sim offering numerous LGBTQ+ characters for the player to fall in love with — but few are as electrifying as the utility couple themselves, Eddie and Volt. 

These characters immediately stand out due to the fact that they come as a package deal; players can only romance them as a pair, with Eddie and Volt refusing to be split apart. Pursuing their storyline shows the complexities of this relationship, with the extremely different men sharing not only their inner thoughts with the player but a clear love for one another. Through them, the protagonist gets to participate in a healthy polyamorous relationship — a rarity in dating sims — and receive a shockingly deep look into their queer love story. 

Eddie and Volt in Date Everything! offer a hilariously heartwarming look into the early stages of an LGBTQ+ relationship. It’s what makes them two of the best characters in that game, and fan-favorites to win the title of Best LGBTQ+ Character!

Kat Mikaelsen, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

It’s hard to think of a recent LGBTQ+ character as impactful as Kat Mikaelsen from Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. 

Audiences follow this young girl as she navigates a tenuous 1990s summer with her friends, struggling with her lesbian identity in a town that sees her pride as a sin. The story is a tearjerking snapshot of queerness at this time; from the thrills of Riot Grrrl subculture to the religious expectations of small towns, the fractured narrative shows how this kind of childhood shapes a person. And through Lost Records’ concurrent storylines, audiences see not only the hardships Kat endured, but the strong, proud woman she becomes.  

Kat’s narratives provides vital lesbian representation and an empowering story of overcoming discrimination. She is a huge part of what makes Lost Records: Bloom & Rage such a resonant game, and it’s clear why she deserves her nomination for LGBTQ+ Character of the Year. 

Melinoë, Hades II

Melinoë is a true stand-out when it comes to representation; every character instantly respects her queerness as a core aspect of this hero’s identity. It is acknowledged but never used as a source of trauma or emotional fodder, with the narrative focusing not on how her sexuality may cause pain but how it allows her become the badass savior Hades II sees her as. This is a rarity when the mainstream media tends to only show LGBTQ+ people through their pain, and it makes the already dazzling world of this game all the more magical. 

There is representation, and then there’s the mystical world of casual queerness that is Hades II. The game threads LGBTQ+ identity throughout its massive story of dueling deities, but where it truly shines as a model for inclusion is its ultra-powerful protagonist, Melinoë.

Through Melinoë, Hades II sets a new standard for inclusive storytelling, all while creating one of the most powerful queer heroes players have ever seen. She’s a true trailblazer — as well as a literal goddess — and she doesn’t need to clear any floors to earn her spot on this list!

Orela Rose, Dead by Daylight

When it comes to making history, few video game characters have changed the medium as much as Orela Rose from Dead by Daylight. 

The first transgender survivor in this historic game, Orela was introduced with authenticity in mind; she is voiced by trans advocate Angelica Ross and was created through a team of inclusivity consultants. This ensured that when she debuted, the survivor became a realistic portrayal of what it’s like living as a trans woman today, with thousands of fans instantly falling in love with this heroic EMT. 

In a game where only the strong survive, Dead By Daylight created Orela Rose to show that living as yourself is the biggest strength someone can have. It’s undeniable that she has made history, and that’s why she’s such a huge contender for this year’s Best LGBTQ+ Character Award. 

Samar, Spirit Swap

It’s unfortunate how many games focus on the many hardships LGBTQ+ people face and not the immense joy that exists within this community. In their defense, it can be hard to capture the unbridled happiness that is having fun with your queer family — but luckily for us all, Samar from Spirit Swap does exactly that.

The protagonist of this musical puzzle game, Samar acts as a guide through Spirit Swap’s vibrant world of big personalities and jaw-dropping magic. She coaches players through cozy puzzles while offering hilarious details about the witchy setting they’ll find themselves fighting through. She does this without her LGBTQ+ identity ever being questioned or criticized, with everyone around her only seeing Samar’s queerness as an important part of why she’s one of the bubbliest, entertaining protagonists that modern gaming has ever seen.

This puzzle-solving witch worked her way into thousands of players’ hearts simply by being her queerest self. She’s a huge reason why Spirit Swap is so beloved, and she’s steadily becoming one of the true frontrunners for this year’s Best LGBTQ+ Character Award!

Sir Hans Capon, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Few modern games are as historically accurate as Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, with this RPG earning acclaim for its accurate portrayal of 15th-century Bohemia. Players were thrilled at how it showed the real experience of living during that time — and through the character Sir Hans Copon, it also showed the unique difficulty of being queer in the Middle Ages. 

Players can enter into a romantic relationship with Hans in an LGBTQ+ first for the Kingdom Come series. This romance offers a chance to explore what it meant to be queer during such a rigid time in history, with the game factoring in the many dangers of being out during that time into an already pulse-pounding style of gameplay. It does this while still maintaining its historical accuracy, becoming one of the few examples of medieval queerness that exists today.  Through Hans, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II reminds players that queer people have always existed. It’s a poignant story nestled within a great game, and it easily earns Sir Hans Capon a nomination for 2026’s Best LGBTQ+ Character Award.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ‘s nomination was announced, the game’s director has shared controversial views on their nomination which has been understandably poorly received by fans. He also has a bad past in GamerGate and other controversies. The Judges have been consulted and they feel that the nomination should stand as it is unfair to punish the worker of the entire game’s development team based on the opinions and views of one person. We will not let one person dim the light of celebrating LGBTQ+ representation in games. Especially the kind of fragile man who has to end every sentence with “no homo”.

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