The winner of the 2026 Jogo do Ano award was recently announced.  It’s Ants, designed by Renato Ciervo and Andrea Robbiani and published by Cranio Creations.  It beat out the other nominated games (Ada’s Dream, Galactic Cruise, Luthier, and Speakeasy) for the honor.

The Jogo do Ano is awarded every year by the Spiel Portugal gaming club.  It focuses almost exclusively on heavier designs.

Ants’ victory continues a recent trend:  award-winning games developed by Simone Luciani.  In addition to Ants, Luciani was the developer for Railway Boom, which just won the IGA Multiplayer game of the year.

Congratulations to Ciervo, Robbiani, and Cranio Creations for this honor.