Now in its 17th year, AWE USA 2026 highlights the 2026 Auggie Awards finalists, a curated selection of 20 promising XR builders, 10 startups competing for the “Startup to Watch” Auggie Award, new XR games from gaming studios and location-based entertainment creators, and more than 300 enterprises and government organizations scaling XR deployments.
Guided by this year’s theme, “I, Spatial: Humans Empowered by Spatial AI,” AWE continues to showcase the importance of AI and XR convergence to maintain human agency when AI agents proliferate the world.
2026 Auggie Awards Finalists Announced
The finalists for the 2026 Auggie Awards have officially been revealed, showcasing the boldest ideas and significant breakthroughs that are driving XR advancements. This year’s program received over 330 entries, reflecting an industry that continues to shift toward more practical, human-centered innovation.
Across the submissions, a few clear patterns stand out: AI has become a core layer in spatial experiences, AR glasses continue to lead the headworn category, location-based entertainment (LBE) is seeing rapid growth within VR, and impact-driven XR solutions reached record levels of participation.
Since 2010, the Auggies have celebrated groundbreaking technology, compelling content, and real-world impact. Finalists were selected through a combination of public voting and expert review, and now advance to the final judging round led by AWE's esteemed advisory panel.
This year's awards cover 18 categories, highlighting the top global innovations in XR. Finalists are showcased in the Auggie Awards Gallery, with winners announced live on June 17 during the Auggie Awards ceremony, held on AWE's Main Stage. Each winner will receive the prestigious Auggie Award Trophy, custom-designed by artist Sigal Arad Inbar, and gain international recognition among XR leaders, investors, and media.
Congratulations to all 2026 finalists, and thank you to the global XR community for another record-breaking year of submissions and support.
Finalists for each category are as follows:
Best Art or Film:
- Reclaiming Dreams
- BurnerSphere — Big Rock Creative
- La Pandora's Box — Nadeem Majdalany
- Henry VIII in Warwick: The Lost Tudor Heart — Keeley Turner
- D-Day: The Camera Soldier — TARGO
Best Campaign:
- Pringles World Inverted — CamOn
- How to Train Your Dragon: Bring the Legend to Life — Zappar
- Toyota - FanPort Mixed Reality — Draw & Code
- The Last Resort - AR Game — Scholastic & Petricore
- Overflow — Meow Wolf + Refract Studio
Best Consumer App:
- “Local Lens AR” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND SC MANAGEMENT Co., Ltd.
- Stencil VR
- Trip the Light: Let's Dance — Dark Arts Software
- Google Maps XR
- FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
- Hide n' Seek — DB Creations
Best Content Creation Tool:
- OXR — Mixel Studio, Inc.
- Mattercraft: The Next Generation of 3D Web Tooling — Zappar
- Strata
- MetaNeural Immersive Simulation Platform
- Arrival.Space
Best Content Creator(s):
- OtterWorldly
- Cause + Christi XR Design
- Notkausa
- Naysy
- AtomBombBody
- Gabriele Romagnoli
- ThrillSeeker
Best Developer Tool:
- Mattercraft: The Next Generation of 3D Web Tooling — Zappar
- OSS for Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) — STYLY Open Source Project for LBE
- GroKit Core — 3lbXR
- VIROO Studio — VIRTUALWARE
- MultiSet AI
- Lens Studio — Specs Inc.
Best Education & Training Solution:
- VR Immersive Experience of Benshan Fifth Tunnel in Taiwan — National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Dept. of Multimedia Design
- Chemical Incident & Terror Response in XR — National Institute of Chemical Safety
- NucleusXR
- Dance Guru — Hypercreative Co., Ltd
- Cabinet of Curiosities — Mechanical Whispers
- Dementia & Empathy Training — Rendever
Best Enterprise Solution:
- Fyware Hub Real-Time XR Training Supervision
- VIROO the XR infrastructure platform — Virtualware
- MockThru (Multi-User Mixed Reality Prototyping) — Southwest Airlines
- echo3D
- FabStation — Eterio Realities Inc.
- SPIDER - AI-Powered Spatial Intelligence for Transforming Industrial Operations — GRID RASTER INC.
Best Game or Toy:
- VRacer Hoverbike — VertexBreakers / Impact Inked
- Iron Rebellion — Black Beach Studio
- Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked — Resolution Games
- Ship Happens VR
- Abyss: Vault — Hololabs Studio Inc
- Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow — Vertigo Games
- Crystal Commanders — DB Creations
Best Headworn Device:
- J9 Eye-Tracking AR Glasses — Jorjin Technologies Inc.
- XREAL 1S
- PICO/ByteDance
- Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform powering Samsung Galaxy XR — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
- Spectacles — Specs Inc.
- Rokid Glasses
Best Healthcare & Wellness Solution:
- Real-Time 3D MRI & CT Spatial Rendering — Frame Sixty
- ARVIS — Enovis
- ACL Rehab in Mixed Reality — University of Miami
- FunFitLand — DelightScape Interactives Inc.
- Mixed Reality Distraction Therapy Program — Abbott, Rock Paper Reality
Best Indie Creator(s):
- Iron Rebellion — Black Beach Studio
- The Foremother's Café — Helen Lundström Erwin
- New Canvas
- VR Escape Rooms — vrCAVE
- Hololabs Studio
- Year of the Cicadas
- Caradise
Best Interaction Product:
- Gate — D2C IMG SRC STUDIO / SoVeC
- SporTrack — NEWJAK
- Be There Without Being There: Humanoid Robot Immersive Telepresence — Carolina Cruz-Neira & Judah Rowe
- Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform ecosystem — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
- Banners & Bastions
Best Location-Based Entertainment:
- Reviewbah - Borneo Adventure Hunt — Reviewbah Sdn Bhd
- “AnimaLOOK!!” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
- Bakusō Club: Portable LBE Edition — Bakusō Pit Crew
- La Magie Opéra — BackLight Studio
- Interstellar Arc — Felix & Paul Studios
- Sandbox VR
Best Reality Capture (a new category in partnership with Reality Capture Network):
- PortalCam — XGRIDS LIMITED
- Scaniverse — Niantic Spatial Scaniverse
- Cintoo VR Experience
- Gracia
- Teleport by Varjo
Best Societal Impact:
- “AnimaLOOK!!” — STYLY, TOKYU LAND CORPORATION
- Ko-Kwel: He Carries a Story — University of Oregon Reality Lab
- Totems of Hope: Your Brain on Philanthropy | A Living System in Evolution — Simeone Scaramozzino
- Tanit XR — Ines Said
- Europa Prime VR — MXT REALITY & TERC
- Cooper’s Clean Air Quest: Making Invisible Pollution Visible — YORD
Best Use of AI:
- J9 Eye-Tracking AR Glasses — Jorjin Technologies Inc.
- Totems of Hope — Neuroadaptive Spatial System — Simeone Scaramozzino
- Drawn Planets — D2C IMG SRC STUDIO / SoVeC
- Gracia
- Your AI Sidekick: The Twin That Gets You — Carolina Cruz-Neira, Abdul Mannan Mohammed, Martin McCarthy
- Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 Platform — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
- XR Vibe Coding with XR Blocks and Gemini — Google
Most Ethical Product (new category in partnership with the XR Guild):
- Zapworks Spaces: Indoor Navigation for Everyone — Zappar
- BurnerSphere — Big Rock Creative
- SecureMR — PICO/ByteDance
- Open Metaverse Browser (OMBI) — Metaverse Standards Forum & RP1
- BIEL SMARTGAZE ORA
- Halo by Brilliant Labs
View the Auggie Awards Gallery here: https://auggies.awexr.com/gallery/bwGlvylK
