Fans Believe Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Was Snubbed from the 2026 Grammy Nominations
- Sagar Mankar
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Recording Academy has officially unveiled the nominees for the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media category at the 2026 Grammy Awards, but many gamers feel something is seriously missing. Despite being one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed soundtracks of the year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, composed by Lorien Testard, was nowhere to be found on the list.
This year’s nominees include Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets of the Spires, Helldivers 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & A Pirate’s Fortune, and Sword of the Sea, all strong contenders. Still, when you consider the impact of Expedition 33’s hauntingly beautiful score, its absence has left fans genuinely baffled.
Testard’s work on the game has been widely praised as one of the finest achievements in modern game music. The soundtrack topped the Billboard Classical charts for ten consecutive weeks and even earned the World Soundtrack Award for Best Game Music last month. Kepler Interactive, the game’s publisher, hosted three massive live concerts in France featuring the score, all of which sold out in minutes.
What makes this snub sting even more is that Kepler submitted the soundtrack for Grammy consideration in two categories: Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Best Song Written for Visual Media. Yet, somehow, it didn’t make the final cut.
Fans online have been quick to express their disappointment. “The GRAMMYs snubbing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is arguably the biggest fumble of all time,” one fan wrote on X. Another chimed in, “No Expedition 33 is ridiculous. I guarantee half of these people didn’t even listen.”
Some posts took it further, mocking the selection process entirely, with one user sarcastically saying the committee “should be jailed” for overlooking such a masterpiece.
And it’s not just Expedition 33 that missed out. Death Stranding 2, featuring the musical talents of Ludvig Forssel and Woodkid, also failed to secure a nomination despite widespread praise for its atmospheric compositions.
Interestingly, Helldivers 2 managed to sneak into eligibility thanks to a technical detail; its soundtrack release date of September 20, 2024, fell neatly inside the Academy’s official window (August 31, 2024, to August 30, 2025). That allowed it to compete this year even though it launched much earlier.
This is now the fourth year since the Grammys introduced a dedicated category for video game music. Previous winners include Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök (2023), Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2024), and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (2025).
For now, fans can only wait for the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, scheduled for February 1, 2026, to find out which of the chosen nominees takes home the golden gramophone, even if, for many, the real winner has already been decided in their hearts.