I was recently invited by 2K to a behind-closed-doors Q&A session with the developers at Visual Concepts to get the lowdown on everything about WWE 2K26. This session answered key questions about this year’s game and left me feeling optimistic about its potential to be the franchise’s best entry in over a decade.
Before we get to some of the questions and answers, let me give you all the details on what’s coming in WWE 2K26, including four different editions of the game and much more.
First things first, this year’s cover star is “The Best In The World” and current WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk (aka AJ’s Husband). Being on this year’s cover makes him one of only a handful of superstars who have graced the cover of a WWE game twice.
Here is what he had to say about it:
“As a kid, I could only dream of being on the cover of a video game. Now I join a very exclusive group of WWE Superstars who have done it twice,” said CM Punk.
“I enjoyed the experience of narrating the 2K Showcase, which gave me an opportunity to tell fans the straight, unfiltered story of the moments, matches, and controversies in my career. Players will get to step into my boots, relive some of my proudest WWE moments, and take on challenges I never had the opportunity to face.”
As I mentioned, there are four editions of WWE 2K26: Standard Edition, King of Kings Edition, Attitude Era Edition, and Monday Night War Edition. Below are details on the pricing and included content for each edition.
● The Standard Edition will be available for $69.99; Pre-Order Bonus Offer: Players who pre-order the WWE 2K26 Standard Edition will receive the Joe Hendry Pack*, a bonus pack of content containing playable Superstar Joe Hendry, a Joe Hendry shirt cosmetic item, Joe Hendry MyFACTION EVO card, and Joe Hendry Spin Island Emote. Players who pre-order any edition of WWE 2K26 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or PC will also receive the WWE 2K25 base game (digital).
Players who pre-order Attitude Era Edition or Monday Night War Edition on PlayStation or Xbox between January 29 and February 23 at 8 AM PT will receive 15,000 VC in WWE 2K26 and 67,500 VC in WWE 2K25.
● King of Kings Edition will be available for $99.99. King of Kings Edition includes the Standard Edition, Joe Hendry Pack, Ringside Pass Premium Season 1, and 32,500 VC, plus the King of Kings Pack, which includes playable Superstars Triple H ‘98 and Stephanie McMahon ‘00, and a “Triple H Signature Taunt” Emote for The Island. King of Kings Edition will be available from March 6, 2026, seven days ahead of the Standard Edition.
● Attitude Era Edition will be available for $129.99. In addition to all content included in the King of Kings Edition, the Attitude Era Edition includes access to Ringside Pass Premium Seasons 1 to 4, plus the Attitude Era Edition Pack, which features playable Superstars The Rock ‘99, Kane ‘98, and Chyna ‘97, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin “Rattlesnake” and The Rock “People’s Champ” MyFACTION EVO cards, the Raw is War ‘98 Arena, and Undertaker “Thumb Across the Neck” Emote and Shawn Michaels “DX Crotch Chop” Emote for The Island.
The Superstar Mega-Boost is also included, which grants 200 MySUPERSTAR attribute points for MyRISE plus 100,000 VC. The Attitude Era Edition will be available from March 6, 2026, seven days ahead of the Standard Edition.
● Monday Night War Edition will be available for $149.99. In addition to all content included in the Attitude Era Edition, the Monday Night War Edition includes access to Ringside Pass Premium Seasons 1 to 6, plus the Monday Night War Edition Pack, which features playable Superstars Shawn Michaels, DX, Macho Man Randy Savage ‘98, Rowdy Roddy Piper ‘98, the WCW Thunder ‘98 Arena, and a Diamond Dallas Page “Bang!” Emote for The Island.
The Monday Night War Edition also grants entitlement for the WrestleMania 42 Pack, which includes the WrestleMania 42 Arena and three WrestleMania 42 Superstar Persona Cards to be automatically entitled post-launch. The Monday Night War Edition will be available from March 6, 2026, seven days ahead of the Standard Edition.
Modes, Roster and More
● 2K Showcase: Punked – CM Punk’s Personal Journey: CM Punk jumps through time to relive incredible moments from his career. Narrated by “The Best in the World” himself, players will relive iconic matches and battle against WWE Legends in Fantasy Warfare. For those who want to truly prove their mettle, the Showcase Gauntlet looks to push players to their limits. CM Punk’s rise, rebellion, and return make this the most personal 2K Showcase yet.
● Best in the World Roster of 400+: WWE 2K26 boasts a roster of over 400 playable characters, the biggest in franchise history. A combination of current Superstars from RAW, SmackDown, and NXT, Legends, and WWE Hall of Famers, the massive roster features John Cena, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Rhea Ripley, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Iyo Sky, Andre the Giant, Drew McIntyre, Bron Breakker, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Seth Rollins, Logan Paul, Stephanie Vaquer, Eddie Guerrero, Liv Morgan, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Penta, Charlotte Flair, Randy Orton, new additions and returns including Rey Fénix, Rusev, and Blake Monroe, and many more.
● Four New Match Types, Offensive Tools, and Gameplay Upgrades: Four new match types, including I Quit, Inferno, Three Stages of Hell, and Dumpster, stackable tables, new usable objects including shopping carts and thumbtacks, and larger interactive environments offer new but familiar ways to punish opponents. Intergender matches are available across core game modes. A revamp of the Reversals and Stamina system adds a layer of strategy, and upgraded physics interactions make the action feel more dynamic and dangerous. Interactive entrances and the addition of Booker T and Wade Barrett to the commentary team further refine the audiovisual presentation.
● Creation Suite – 2X the CAS and Image Slots, Plus Body Morphing: The best-in-class customization mode now offers 200 Create-a-Superstar save slots, doubling the existing count in response to community demand. Community Creations now feature a doubled image capacity of 2,000, deeper body and face morphing tools, and two-tone hair color blending, giving players unprecedented freedom to craft the Superstars, arenas, and other creations of their dreams.
● MyGM – More Shows, More Superstars Per Match: New intergender matches, 5, 6, and 8-man matches, plus support for more match types than ever before, vastly increase the number of possible matches and outcomes. More shows per season pose new management challenges in 2K’s strategic brand management simulation mode.
● MyRISE – New Theme, Increased Replay Value: Players define their MySUPERSTAR’s journey through two new division-based storylines where villainous or heroic decisions impact MyPLAYER characters like never before. Players can now keep playing even after the main stories are complete, with more unlockable content and achievements to earn for increased replayability.
● Universe – The Draft is Here!: The WWE Draft comes to WWE 2K’s sandbox mode, where players create their own WWE Universe and control match outcomes. Other new introductions include the new Universe Creation Wizard, Watch Show mode, improved Money in the Bank cash-ins, and additional promo types.
● The Island – New Storyline and Environment, Available on All Platforms: 2K’s WWE-themed world is now bigger and more social than ever, and available for the first time on PC. Players will choose one of three factions and battle for control with a revamped progression system. The new Scrapyard Brawl environment, fresh Towers, new shops and branded gear, an expanded MySUPERSTAR builder with face-photo importing, plus upgraded quests complete with Superstar voiceovers, cutscenes, and dialogue screens enhance the immersive experience.
● MyFACTION – Chemistry is Key: The collectible card-battle mode is back with new intergender lineups and Quick Swap matches. Players collect new card designs and boost their performance with the new Faction Chemistry and run-in support. New themed card packs and goals will continue to roll out regularly throughout the year with seasonal content refreshes.
A Change To DLC
That’s a lot, and now for the one thing I’m personally excited about, although I acknowledge it will be divisive for some. WWE 2K26 is moving away from the traditional DLC pack model and toward a battle pass-style system. They assured us during the developer Q&A that this will not mean we get fewer additional Superstars as DLC this year. We should see a similar level to previous years, along with personas and more.
● Ringside Passes – DLC gets an upgrade with more post-launch content than ever before: The all-new Ringside Pass offers players additional incentive to play, earning XP across all game modes, excluding online lobbies. Sixty free tiers and 40 premium tiers will be available to reward gameplay, with players who reach tier 40 of the Ringside Pass Premium Season able to unlock Superstars, cosmetic and customization items, VC, MyFACTION and The Island content, and more.
The Ringside Pass Premium replaces the previous DLC model, rewarding players with all-new playable characters unavailable on the base game roster, including current Superstars, Legends, Personas, and some unexpected names. Six Ringside Pass Seasons are planned to roll out throughout the year, with Ringside Pass Season 1 available at launch and featuring unlockable Superstars and Legends previously available in the WWE 2K Supercharger on the free tier.
The developers mentioned that this was designed to keep players engaged for longer throughout the year, something I think is an excellent change, as it will certainly keep me playing for months after launch.
What About Nintendo Switch 2?
This year marks the first entry in the franchise to release on Nintendo Switch 2. So you might be wondering, “Does the Nintendo version have any bespoke features?” Today, 2K revealed the following:
WWE 2K26 on Nintendo Switch 2 will offer several additional features made possible through Nintendo Switch 2’s unique hardware, including touchscreen and mouse support, GameShare and GameChat, support for single Joy-Con gameplay, and the ability to use mouse controls in Creation Suite for face and body painting. The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game will also support Image Uploader and cross-platform Community Creations.
What Else Did I Learn At The Q&A?
That rounds out most of what I was told during the developer Q&A session, but what else did I learn?
The question I asked the team was: How have you approached accessibility? Are there any features that we could look forward to, such as simplified button layouts or adjustments that could be made by the player to make the game more accessible?
The answer was a little more in-depth than I expected.
Lynell Jinks (Visual Concepts) Not necessarily. It’s something that we know, that we’ve actually talked about, and we’re trying to figure out ways that we can kind of cater to that audience. It’s definitely a challenge for us, because we know there are a ton of actions that require complex inputs at times, so we need to do our homework and figure out ways to make that a better experience.
Derek Donahue (Visual Concepts)
We definitely think when it comes to implementing new features that we want to add balancing sliders and options in the game to modify those features where possible. Button mashing is one thing that comes to mind. We do have an alternate option where you can press and hold the button instead of mashing, and that applies to any mechanics that ask you to button mash. When we design new features, we also try to avoid button mashing in general to keep a variety of inputs and not have everything siloed into one style of input. But I agree with Lynell, we’re always thinking about more ways that we can improve that year over year.
So, while this was not the fully positive, feature-rich answer many players were hoping for, it at least makes clear that accessibility is on their minds and that they are seeking ways to improve the series in that regard.
WWE 2K26 will be available starting March 6, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam, with the Standard Edition releasing on March 13, 2026.
