San Luis Obispo, California, USA – January 8, 2026 – Global Game Jam® (GGJ) announces the next edition of its annual jam, Global Game Jam 2026, the world's largest collaborative game development event. The jam will take place from 26 January to 1 February 2026, bringing together game developers, students, educators, and creatives from around the world.
The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is an annual, worldwide event where participants form small teams to create games over a short, intensive period, inspired by a shared global theme. Blending creativity, experimentation, and learning-by-doing, GGJ empowers people of all backgrounds and skill levels to explore game development in a collaborative and inclusive environment.
Key Dates for Global Game Jam 2026
- 19–23 January 2026 – GGJ Prep Week
- 24–25 January 2026 – Global Theme Reveal Event (YouTube & Twitch)
- 26 January 2026 – Global Game Jam begins worldwide
- 1 February 2026 – Jam concludes
For full details, schedules, and updates, please visit the official Global Game Jam website.
A Truly Global Event at Unprecedented Scale
Global Game Jam is a worldwide phenomenon, hosted simultaneously across hundreds of local jam sites in dozens of countries. Each year, tens of thousands of participants come together to create, collaborate, and learn through play.
In 2026, GGJ will surpass a major milestone, reaching over 500,000 lifetime participants worldwide. In 2025, GGJ surpassed 100,000 total games created from the jam, highlighting the scale, creativity, and sustained global impact of the event.
Annually, the event attracts around 40,000 participants across 800 sites in 100 countries.
At its core, Global Game Jam exists to foster innovation, collaboration, and experimentation through game development. The event emphasizes learning-by-doing, rapid prototyping, and community building, encouraging participants to share ideas, skills, and perspectives across disciplines and cultures.
Who Should Participate
Global Game Jam is open to a broad and diverse audience, including:
- Game developers and aspiring developers
- Students and educators
- Artists, designers, musicians, and writers
- Technologists and creative professionals
- First-time jammers with no prior game development experience
Educational, Cultural, and Professional Impact
Global Game Jam demonstrates a strong and measurable impact across education, culture, and industry. Through hands-on collaboration, participants acquire practical skills including teamwork, problem-solving, creative thinking, and rapid iteration, all of which are essential across creative and technology-driven sectors.
From a cultural standpoint, GGJ positions games as a meaningful creative and educational medium, supporting the expression of local identities, social issues, and experimental approaches. From a professional perspective, the jam frequently acts as an entry point into the games industry and adjacent creative fields, with numerous long-term projects and career paths originating from jam-based collaborations.
"The Global Game Jam is a celebration of creativity, innovation and community," GGJ Executive Director Maria Burns Ortiz said. "As we head into 2026 and the 17th edition of the Global Game Jam, amid ongoing uncertainty not only in our industry but around the world, seeing tens of thousands of creators from over 100 countries come together to make games around a shared theme speaks to the power of games to connect us."
How to Take Part
Whether you want to run a jam site, participate as a jammer, learn more about the Global Game Jam theme, or explore other important dates and deadlines, additional information is available in the Global Game Jam FAQ
Partners
Global Game Jam runs the annual event at no-cost to jam participants. GGJ 2026 is made possible by the financial support of industry partners. The 2026 Global Game Jam Headline Sponsors are Epic Games, Games for Change and Xsolla.
Global Game Jam is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower people around the world to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games. In addition to organizing the largest game jam in the world, GGJ works year-round to support, promote, and grow the global game development community.
