IGN Game Review: WWE 2K26

0:00This is IGN. This isn't a knockout blow for the series, but it's certainly a threat to the champion. This is your IGN review of WWE 2K26 by Jared Green. If it's a WrestleMania season, that means it's also time for a new WWE 2K game. Over the last few years, the series has been on its most impressive run-to-date, and WWE 2K26 is a solid enough next chapter in that story. I don't regret the time I've spent running the ropes in this year's ring, but with another Malik Toast Showcase mode and the growing tendrils of monetization wrapping itself around the experience like an Anaconda vice, it's starting to feel like the golden age for 2K wrestling games might be coming to an end. 2K26 hasn't learned many new moves since last year, mostly just tweaking existing base mechanics. The biggest slam to the system isn't adjustment to stamina, adding a condition called winded to superstars who run out.

1:01While winded, your stamina wheel turns from yellow to purple, and you can no longer run or use reversals until it empties and goes back to normal. This adds more risk reward to all of the offensive and defensive actions you do in the ring that costs stamina. A big blast from the past are the additional match types added in 2K26. I quit, dumpster, inferno, and three stages of hell. That last one is essentially a gauntlet where you choose three different match stipulations and wrestle through them, 2 out of 3 fall style. This year's Showcase, themed around the highlights and low lights of CM Punk's 2 pronged WWE career, was a disappointment. It suffers from most of the same problems that these modes always have, like the gaping holes in history that it has to ignore for corporate reasons, or the awkward ways it tries and fails to recreate major moments in real matches as gameplay moments. This year's My Rise follows the archetype, a former top star returning from a long layoff

2:01to try to get their groove back. It's a more streamlined story overall, with fewer big beats across its six chapters, but some more consequential decisions to make in each, usually to change your alignment from heroic fan favorite to callous villain, and possibly back again. Though it's shorter than past My Rise's, grinding largely meaningless matches to get from plot point to plot point still feels like wasted time. Some of the more niche modes like Universe and My GM are still good, with small improvements that don't shake things up too dramatically, but are certainly nice to have. WWE 2K26 benefits most from having been built on a tremendous foundation, one that is barely had to change, but continues to in ways that are starting to hurt more than help. The smaller gameplay tweaks, slight expansions to niche modes like My GM and new match types are at best great and at worst irrelevant. Yet, there are still large bugaboos that show no real sign of improvement, like the centerpiece

3:02showcase mode, My Rise and its unavoidable thirst for wasting your time, or the money pit of the island online hub, and some changes, like the addition of the battle pass, make growing your collection of cosmetics, moves, and wrestlers worse and more expensive. This isn't a knockout blow for the series, but it's certainly a threat to the champion. WWE 2K26 is IGN score, 7 out of 10. Thanks for listening to IGN, my name is Tony Jackson, and for the latest WWE 2K26 updates and to read the full review, visit us at IGN.com.