Wccftech’s Most Anticipated Shooter Games of 2026

2025 was an explosive year for shooter games. The schedule of the new year is also quite juicy, mostly thanks to Xbox Studios releasing two games based on its heavy-hitting shooter franchises in the same year: Halo Campaign Evolved and Gears of War E-Day. Those two, plus Bungie’s Marathon, are arguably the most anticipated shooter games of 2026 based on what we currently know, but history has shown there can always be interesting surprises throughout the year. Scroll down below to read our full shortlist and the honorable mentions, too.
Other Wccftech’s Most Anticipated 2026 Games per genre: Role-Playing Games, Indie Games, Platformers, DLC/Expansion, Action
Highguard (January 26, 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Out of all the shooter games on this list, Highguard was the one announced most recently, and yet it is also going to be the first to hit the market. It was the final reveal at Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards 2025 event, and that didn’t do it any favors, as many viewers complained the show should have ended on a higher note.
Still, that doesn’t mean Highguard won’t be fun. The game is being developed by a new studio called Wildlight Entertainment, a remote-first company founded by former developers who worked on Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Call of Duty. The game is a competitive ‘raid shooter’ where the player characters, called Wardens, who are arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent. Players will fight rival Warden crews for control of the Shieldbreaker, then break into and destroy the enemy base to secure victory. The gameplay footage demonstrated fairly large maps where players will also ride mounts like horses, panthers, and bears. There’s definitely a bit of a fantasy vibe, with several characters showcasing magic skills. Whether that will be enough to make it unique remains to be seen.
Marathon (March 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Bungie’s first new project since 2014’s Destiny uses one of its historical franchises, Marathon. The upcoming installment launches thirty years after the previous entry, Marathon Infinity. This new game is fundamentally different, though: it’s modeled after the increasingly popular extraction shooter.
Bungie plans to differentiate Marathon from existing extraction shooters by replacing generic characters with the so-called Runner Shells, bio-cybernetic hero archetypes like Stealth, Medic, and Destroyer, each possessing unique tactical abilities. The gameplay loop incorporates high-stakes, “raid-like” endgame scenarios on the UESC Marathon ship, where players must navigate security measures to claim high-tier artifacts.
The title emphasizes a persistent narrative through seasonal faction progression and The Codex, a system that tracks player achievements and non-linear story discoveries. There’s also a dedicated Rook mode for solo players to scavenge in matches already in progress. Bungie also promised a player-friendly live-service model featuring non-expiring battle passes and a $39.99 price point.
After several delays, we are now only around two months away from the game’s launch. You can learn more about it in our report based on the latest official ViDoc.
Halo: Campaign Evolved (TBA 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS, XSX)
While Bungie, the original creator of the Halo series, readies its new Marathon game, the current caretakers of the Halo IP are remaking the game that made Bungie popular in the first place. Originally known as Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 release was the killer application of the first Xbox platform, as well as the first-person shooter that revolutionized the genre on consoles.
Following several rumors, Halo Studios (formerly known as 343 Industries) has revealed the existence of Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake that focuses exclusively on the story mode, eliminating the multiplayer modes. Just like Oblivion Remastered, the game’s visuals will run on Unreal Engine 5, while the original engine (Blam) will handle the rest. Several changes have been confirmed, including the addition of vehicle hijacking, weapon zooming, a redesigned 4-man Warthog, the optional addition of sprinting, and several level design changes that the original level designer didn’t take kindly to.
Still, Halo: Campaign Evolved will introduce the series to PlayStation users for the first time. It could be a way to revive its popularity after several games in a row that received mixed reactions from the gaming community.
Gears of War: E-Day (TBA 2026 – PC, Xbox Series S and X)
Apart from last year’s Gears of War: Reloaded, fans of the third-person shooter franchise originally created by Epic Games haven’t received a new mainline installment since 2019’s Gears 5. With Gears of War: E-Day, though, developer The Coalition (which is collaborating with People Can Fly, a studio that previously worked on Gears of War Judgment, on this project) is ditching the semi-open world elements to tell a linear story once again.
Even so, the studio has boasted that this one will be their most ambitious game yet. E-Day, as the title itself confirms, is set fourteen years before the events seen in the first Gears of War, on the day that the Locust Horde emerged on the surface of the planet Sera. The story will feature the two young COG soldiers, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, as they attempt to survive the invasion in the city of Kalona (a brand new location never before seen in previous games).
Witchfire (TBA 2026 – PC)
Polish indie developer The Astronauts is taking a very, very long time to make Witchfire. The studio’s previous game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, was released in 2014, and their new project was announced over eight years ago at The Game Awards 2017.
That said, The Astronauts is a very small team, and Witchfire is a lot more ambitious than their previous adventure game. A dark fantasy shooter with roguelite elements, the game delayed its early access debut to September 2023 to add open world maps. The game was initially available only on the Epic Games Store due to a timed exclusivity deal signed with Epic; the Steam early access version was launched exactly one year later. Recently, the development team released a major update called ‘The Reckoning’ and confirmed that the game has surpassed 500K units sold. However, as with most early access games, the vast majority of gamers are still waiting for the final version, slated to launch in 2026, to play.
Honorable Mentions
High on Life 2 (February 13, 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Toxic Commando (March 12, 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
No More Room in Hell 2 (TBA 2026 – PC)
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam (TBA 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Armatus (TBA 2026 – PC, PS5, XSS/XSX, NS2)