All the way back in January, it seemed like 2026 might be a rough year for fans of shooters. Highguard’s launch and almost immediate delaunch created an anxiety around the genre that was hard to shake. Scrutiny around Marathon in the lead-up to its launch doubled that uncertainty, leaving some to wonder if the shooter genre — at least in its trusty live-service form — was going out of fashion.
Rumors of the shooter’s demise were greatly exaggerated, it turns out. Looking back at the year from October’s vantage point, 2026 has turned out to be a landmark year for the genre. While sales have been erratic at times, this year has given us plenty of big-budget and indie shooters alike that have revitalized a category that needed some fresh blood.
Xbox has been a major player in that charge, despite having a disastrous year from a business perspective. Even so, the studios working under the publisher have still found a way to deliver a handful of hits. Chief among them is Gear of War: E-Day, which has been a hit with critics and players alike since launch.
It’s a highly polished throwback to the golden age of cover-based shooters, one that packs a lot of delicious brutality into a lore-expanding prequel campaign. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 positioned as a similar return to glory, Xbox could wind up with two behemoths on its hands this year. PlayStation had its own notable contributions to the genre.
Housemarque’s Saros landed as a critically acclaimed follow-up to the roguelike action of Returnal. Then there’s the weird case of Marathon, the extraction shooter that has struggled to lock down a massive player base since launch. While developer Bungie is currently in the process of retooling it, the game has earned some dedicated supporters who have praised the shooter for its satisfying action, slick art direction, and top-notch world-building.
Even Nintendo is in the conversation, against all odds. Splatoon Raiders successfully took the multiplayer fun of the ink-shooter series and adapted it into an ingenious looter-shooter. It was a big hit with Switch 2 owners; it’s currently the third-highest rated game of 2026 on Metacritic based on user reviews.
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