WWE 2K26 Preview: This Could Be One of WWE’s Best Games Yet

The past year has been an interesting one in the world of WWE, and now we are well underway on WrestleMania season as superstars look to cement their spot for the biggest event of the year, while rising stars look to make their first major impact. WWE 2K26 looks to capture the year’s big moments and future ones with one of its biggest rosters and a bevy of new additions to the already solid foundation of WWE 2K25, and from our early hands-on time with the game, we can say that it’s well on its way to delivering one of its best entries to date.

WWE 2K26 features additions in several different areas, including four new match types (Inferno, I Quit, 3 Stages of Hell, and Dumpster), a major upgrade to Create-A-Superstar, the opportunity to include even more superstars in MyGM, a roster of over 400 superstars, and a number of new ways to interact with the matches themselves, both in and out of the ring. Coupled with the CM Punk theming of the showcase, there’s a lot to process, but let’s break down some of the biggest additions.

In-Ring Gameplay Continues To Be The Heart of WWE 2K

After getting in the ring for a few matches, it’s clear that the in-ring and even in-arena aspects of WWE 2K continue to form the heart of the series in WWE 2K26. 2K has introduced even more ways to interact with the audience, the ring, and the superstars from the moment they step onto the entrance ramp to the end of the match. Want more pyro for your entrance? You can manually activate that throughout the entrance, and you can also play to the crowd as a babyface or a heel throughout your walk to the ring.

When you arrive at the ring, you can also toggle flames and other VFX from the ring posts, and then to get the best angle of everything, you can shift to the 3rd-person camera seamlessly. It’s all quite cinematic and makes the game feel even more like the TV product, and that continues into the pre-match moments as well. You can initiate several trademark wrestling scenarios at the beginning of a match, including the ever-iconic stare down, which will have both opponents move towards the middle for a great camera shot before the fists start flying. You can also rush your opponent, approach them, or draw energy, which can then lead to handshakes and chain wrestling.

Read Next

WWE 2K26 Reveals New Gameplay Features, Modes, And Roster Updates (But DLC System Is The Biggest Change)

When the in-ring battle actually begins, the movement and animations feel more fluid than ever. There’s a general smoothness to the movement that especially stands out, as while last year’s movement was generally good, there were still moments where it felt a bit clunky. This time around, there wasn’t a hint of that clunkiness, and that was true of outside-the-ring and top-rope moments as well.

The stamina system similarly feels refined this year, as in last year’s edition, it almost felt like you were having to constantly fight against the system throughout the course of a match. The stamina system this year still keeps you from spamming big moves, but it feels less restrictive, so you can still chain together some big combos and be able to react more often than not when your opponent suddenly charges you and threatens to take over the match.

New Additions Make Big Impacts

Having new features and match types is great, but only if they make the core product feel that much more immersive or replayable. Thankfully, the new additions to WWE 2K26 are already having a major impact, and let’s start with one you will encounter almost instantly in the commentary team. Michael Cole returns, but alongside him are now Wade Barrett and Booker T, and their addition to the team is huge. They add so much personality to the action, and that goes tenfold for Booker T.

The match types feel like welcome additions as well, and while a Dumpster Match is mostly just a reworking of the Casket Match, the other three matches feel much more unique. The Inferno Match places control of the match with you and your opponent, as it won’t go full inferno until you both pull off enough big moves. At that point, it then changes the format of the match since you no longer can leave the ring, and there’s an almost Royal Rumble mechanic that plays into the ending.

Meanwhile, the I Quit match introduces a whole new mechanic into the game, as once you try to make your opponent quit, you then have to try and make their resistance to quitting that much more difficult by hitting the button in certain green areas, which become smaller over time. You can also utilize weapon submissions as part of this to make it hurt even more, but also make it feel more like things you’ve seen on WWE TV, and the chair submission is easily the standout here. The I Quit match feels far more distinct than I expected, and while the 3 Stages of Hell doesn’t have a new mechanic per se, it still stands out thanks to the tournament execution and how those string together.

The other huge improvement comes to the backstage brawls, a mode that was fine but still lacked something in WWE 2K25. This year, the team has removed more of the invisible walls and barriers to increase the chaos factor, and after jumping in for a while, I have to say job well done. This went from boring backstage battle to hilarious chaos, as at one point I saw Bron Breakker fall off the top level and careen down into a spotlight on the ground floor. It looked like something WWE would save for a PLE, and it was literally one aspect of a match in WWE 2K26. The fun factor was substantially raised, and there’s even a whole new level that ups the ante even more in the Scrapyard.

As for the roster, there are over 400 superstars in the game, and the breadth of the roster is immense. You have Raw, SmackDown, NXT, AAA, and a host of WWE Legends all in the mix, and a number of NXT superstars fans wanted from last year’s game made this cut this time around. The graphics look fantastic so far this year, and while not every superstar is a 1-to-1 with their real counterparts, there are some amazing recreations this year, including Damian Priest, Oba Femi, Sol Ruca, Joe Hendry, Raquel Rodriguez, and more.

Now, there are still some things that could be improved upon with the game in general, with one being that the area you have to be in to pick up a weapon is still too small, and the delay it causes in the action is small but still noticeable and can easily take you out of what’s happening in the ring. There’s also the fact that the movement system that feels so great in the ring doesn’t translate as seamlessly to the backstage brawls, though in that case, it probably never can without that mode becoming its own game just due to the engine. Some superstars need an update as well, but again, on the whole, these are general nitpicks on what was an excellent experience overall.

WWE 2K26 will release on March 13, 2026.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!