The 2026 Grammy Awards has just released its official list of nominees, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is nowhere to be found in the ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media’ category. Composed by Lorien Testard, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s score is widely considered to be one of the year’s best video game soundtracks, making its absence in the Grammys’ nominee list rather odd, especially in light of what has been nominated.
Presented by The Recording Academy of the United States, the Grammy Awards have been around since 1959, though it took until 2012 for a video game (Journey) to be officially nominated. In 2023, video games were finally given their own category in the Grammy Awards. The last three to take home the award have been Stephanie Economou for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Winifred Phillips for the Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord remake.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Is Being Snubbed For The 2026 Grammy Awards
On November 7, the Grammy Awards announced its full list of nominees ahead of its ceremony next year, which is set to take place on Sunday, February 1, 2026. Five titles were nominated in the ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media’ category:
- Helldivers 2 – Wilbert Roget II
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Gordy Haab
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: Secrets of the Spires – Pinar Toprak
- Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & A Pirate’s Fortune – Cody Matthew Johnson & Wilbert Roget II
- Sword of the Sea – Austin Wintory
The Grammy Awards’ 2026 nominee list has quickly garnered criticism online due to the absence of some very popular video game soundtracks from this past year. Though Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is arguably the most obvious snub, hugely popular video game scores like those from Death Stranding 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, Mario Kart World, and Donkey Kong Bananza are all missing from the list as well. While the Grammy Awards’ eligibility window of August 31, 2024–August 30, 2025 may have stopped Silksong and Hades 2 from being nominated, it wouldn’t have affected the other titles mentioned here.
What makes the absence of these popular video game soundtracks all the more confusing is the Recording Academy’s choice of nominees. Three of the five video game scores nominated are from titles based on a recognizable IP, and two of those nominations are technically for DLCs. It’s also worth mentioning that Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora were already nominated for the 2025 Grammy Awards, and though it wasn’t nominated last year, Helldivers 2 came out in February 2024.
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
Source: Grammy Awards
