The Roblox Innovation Awards in 2026

Voting for the Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 has already closed, and the community is now waiting on one thing: the winners. If you searched for the Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 hoping for a quick status check, here it is. Voting ended on August 11, and Roblox will reveal every winner on September 12 at RDC. Let’s follow LDShop, as below, we break down the full nominee list, the free items that were up for grabs, and what to expect from the ceremony itself.

Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 Key Dates

The event ran across a few distinct phases this year, and knowing the timeline helps explain why the hub behaves differently right now than it did in late July.

Phase	Date
Nominations announced	April 3, 2026
Community nomination survey	Closed early due to volume
RIA26 voting hub opens	July 29, 2026
Voting closes	August 11, 2026, 8:00 PM PST
Winners revealed at RDC	September 12, 2026

Since voting has ended, The Block no longer hands out new items, and casting a vote is no longer possible. The experience still exists, but it now functions as a placeholder until the winners get announced at RDC.

RIA26 The Block: The Roblox Innovation Awards Voting Hub

Twin Atlas built the official voting hub for the third year running, working with Atomic Horizon on the project. Searching "RIA" inside Roblox pulls up the correct verified experience every year, since the name simply updates with the current edition, so RIA26 becomes RIA27 next year.

Players spawned into a neon, concert-style lobby and walked toward a rotating cube platform to cast votes across all 19 categories at once. A side portal let players jump into any nominated experience and return, and hidden cubes plus a secret obby were scattered around the map's edges. Region locks caused real friction too, with players in some countries, including Russia, unable to load the hub at all.

Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 Categories and Nominees

This is the part most guides gloss over, so we pulled nominees straight from multiple creator playthroughs and cross-checked them against each other for accuracy. Note that a few smaller categories, like Best UGC Creator, still had unclear nominee names at time of writing.

Category	Confirmed Nominees
Best New Game	Animal Hospital, TTK, +1: Keyboard Escape, Scary Shawarma Kiosk: The Anomaly
Innovation in Tech	Pixel Quest, TTK, Dueling Grounds, Scary Shawarma Kiosk: The Anomaly
Innovation in Creative Direction	Animal Hospital, Piggy Intercity, Gakuran, Duck Duck
Innovation in Branded Game	KPop Demon Hunters, Steal a Brainrot x Bruno Mars Concert
Best Party & Casual	Adopt Me, +1: Keyboard Escape, Clip It
Best Survival	99 Nights in the Forest, Nullscape
Best Sports	FIFA Super Soccer, Blue Lock Rivals, Racket Rivals, Volleyball Legends
Best Strategy	Tower Defense Simulator, Rise of Nations, Mini War
Best Action	RIVALS
Best Shooter	RIVALS, TTK, Counter Strike, HyperShot
Best RPG	Blox Fruits
Classic	Jailbreak
Best Use of Audio	Doors, G&B, Blacktails
Best Studio	Twin Atlas
People's Choice	RIVALS, Grow a Garden 2, Animal Hospital, 99 Nights in the Forest

If you check the Gakuran beginner guide alongside its Creative Direction nomination, you will see why the game earned a spot despite being a newer release. RIVALS shows up in three separate categories this year, and our Rivals beginner guide breaks down why it keeps landing nominations season after season.

Twin Atlas earned its Best Studio nomination on the back of a strong 2026 lineup, and its Innovation in Branded Game entry through KPop Demon Hunters pulled in a respectable player count during the voting window. Grow a Garden 2 sits in People's Choice against three heavyweight rivals, which is a genuinely tight race given how much attention the farming sequel has held onto since launch.

Free UGC Items From the Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 Hub

Six free accessories were tied to simple objectives inside The Block, and every one unlocked instantly once its badge fired.

Reward	Objective
Welcome Cap	Joined the hub
World Builder Hammer	Voted in all 19 categories
VFX Staff of Wizardry	Entered a nominated game portal and returned
Aura of Re-Animation	Took a screenshot with the built-in camera
Programmer's Scrolls	Collected all seven hidden cubes
Musical Mindset Aura	Finished the hidden obby

These items are now locked behind the closed voting window, so anyone who missed the deadline cannot claim them anymore. If you already earned them, they stay in your inventory permanently. Players who want to stay ready for the next Roblox event, or who are stocking up ahead of the RDC reveal, can grab a Roblox top up to have Robux ready for whatever limited items follow the ceremony. The best platform to make the top-up is LDShop, it lets players top up for less and it is a great way to save money.

Community Reaction to the 2026 Category Changes

Roblox trimmed its category count again this year, folding Tycoon, Obby and Roleplay into one broad Classic bucket. Developers on the forum compared this year's list directly against 2024, when the event ran 17 separate genre categories, and the reaction was mostly critical. Several smaller studios felt the wider categories reduce their chances of ever getting nominated again.

On the positive side, plugin creators and audio designers finally got dedicated recognition this year, something earlier editions skipped entirely. If you are building a squad to explore this year's nominated titles together, our roundup of the best games to play with friends in Roblox covers several names that also appear on the RIA26 list.

When Are Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 Winners Announced

Roblox confirmed the winners will be revealed during the ceremony at RDC on September 12, 2026. Last year's show was hosted by Justin Sousa, known in the community as JParty, with an opening appearance from CEO Dave Baszucki. Expect a similar format this year, likely streamed live on Twitch and YouTube for anyone who cannot attend in person.

Looking back at 2025 gives a solid read on what could happen this September. Grow a Garden swept Best New Experience and People's Choice, while 99 Nights in the Forest and Dead Rails split wins across survival and strategy categories. Given how strong Grow a Garden 2 and 99 Nights in the Forest have performed through 2026, both look like genuine favorites again. If you are still working toward in-game currency for whatever comes after the ceremony, our guide on the best way to get Robux is worth a look.

Conclusion

Voting for the Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 has closed, and the free items from The Block are no longer claimable, but the biggest moment of the event is still ahead. Roblox will announce every winner on September 12 at RDC, closing out a year that saw RIVALS, Animal Hospital, TTK and Grow a Garden 2 dominate the nomination list. Keep an eye on official Roblox channels that day, since the Roblox Innovation Awards 2026 results will likely set the tone for which games and creators define the platform going into next year.