Gayming Awards 2026 Meet the Nominees: Gayming Fan Favorite Award

While every category at the 2026 Gayming Awards is filled with fierce competition, there are few that fans have their eyes on more than the Gayming Fan Favorite Award — because they control who wins!

This award gives our community the chance to show their love for the games that impacted them in the past year. And this is quite a competitive year; each of these nominees offered a great gaming experience that thousands of LGBTQ+ players have fallen in love with. 

Let’s take a deeper look at each of these games now, and try to see which ones’ fanbase came through to win them the Gayming Fan Favorite Award at the Gayming Awards 2026!

Date Everything! 

Even in a subgenre as expansive as dating simulations, there’s truly never been a project like Sassy Chap Games’ Date Everything!

The game delivers on its title’s promise; players can romance personified versions of literally any item they find around their house. From saucy clothes hangers to lovable vacuum cleaners, Date Everything! offers dozens of unique characters for players to fall in love with and befriend!

But even beyond this gameplay, Date Everything! has earned acclaim for its nonstop representation. Every character is LGBTQ+ — making it one of the most representative games in dating sim history — with each offering insightful thoughts on what healthy romance looks like today. Through its quirky premise and amazing voice cast, Date Everything! offers genuine lessons on boundaries, mutual respect, and the importance of platonic love. 

Dead By Daylight – Steady Pulse

Dead By Daylight is one of modern gaming’s most popular games, and it’s clear to see why; this asymmetric multiplayer has four survivors square off against gruesome killers through engrossing mechanics and numerous playable characters.

This horrific premise has earned the franchise millions of fans, with a large group of them being LGBTQ+ players who’ve been ecstatic to see this game incorporate queer representation throughout its terror. Not only has Dead By Daylight partnered with groundbreaking series like The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, but its recent introduction of the character Orela Rose in the Steady Pulse chapter created one of gaming’s most authentic portrayals of living as a transgender woman today. 

Dead By Daylight shows that your game can be as horrifying as it is inclusive, earning it millions of fans and a nomination for the Gayming Fan Favorite Award!

Hades II 

A follow-up to the hit original, Hades II shows a beautiful image of queer strength like players have never seen before. 

A sequel to the Hades, this roguelike dungeon crawler casts players as Melinoë, the badass, bisexual Princess of the Underworld trying to save her family from a God-eating Titan. This franchise has always been queer — fans were thrilled that Hades featured numerous LGBTQ+ deities — but by making its heroine queer the game showcases the strength that comes from living authentically. It’s a fact that ever her foes recognize; while Melinoë encounters numerous enemies, the game makes it clear that even they recognize her identity as a source of true power. 

Pair this with Hades II’s jaw-dropping art style and addicting combat, and it’s no wonder why the game has earned such a committed LGBTQ+ fanbase!

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

While many pieces of media explore the experience of being a queer teenager, none in the past year have done it better than Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. 

This narrative game follows a group of four girls during an unforgettable summer in 1995. It introduces players to many amazing characters, though one stands out: Kat Mikaelsin, a young girl realizing her lesbian identity while grappling with the constraints of her close-knit community. 

Sapphic players felt thoroughly seen by Kat’s story, with Lost Records exploring themes of small-town queerness and the subcultures that pushed the fight for LGBTQ+ rights forward. Each main character offers extremely relatable stories, and it was Kat who finally gave thousands of gamers the representation they needed to see. Whether it be her storyline, or the numerous others that fill this thoughtful project, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage has proven itself as an innovator for the narrative-based subgenre. 

Hollow Knight: Silksong 

How do you follow up a game that many people consider perfect? It’s a risky endeavor, and one that Hollow Knight: Silksong completely succeeds at. 

Fans have been yearning for a sequel to Hollow Knight for almost a decade, with their wants finally being answered when Silksong released in 2025. And they weren’t disappointed; the game has earned massive acclaim for expanding on players’ favorite parts of the original, keeping the unique combat and exploration while introducing a story that further fleshes out this 2D world. 

Hollow Knight: Silksong managed to improve upon gameplay that so many already loved, using this foundation to make something utterly new for modern audiences. It’s a testament to the indie gaming genre and a true fan-favorite for so many gamers today!  

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II 

Many players come to video games for immersion, to lose themselves in complex narratives and play styles. And when it comes to medieval times, no game offers more immersion than Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

A follow-up to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, this open world RPG lets players navigate the 1400s Czech Republic with the life and combat mechanics that made the original so popular. It does this while also imbuing its story with complex themes of queerness through the character Sir Hans Capon, with this romanceable character showing how difficult it was being LGBTQ+ during this restrictive time. A realistic exploration into a very specific period in history, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II stands as one of the most immersive games of the past year — and one of the only examples of medieval queerness in the mainstream media!

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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