Best Single-Game Performance is a new category at the 2026 ESPYS, and it lands with a loaded four-name field. Shohei Ohtani earned the nod for a postseason game in which he hit three home runs and threw six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. He shares the ballot with Bam Adebayo's 83-point night, Tyce Armstrong's three grand slams, and Hannah Hidalgo's 16-steal record. Ohtani is the runaway favorite on the Kalshi board, which resolves the night the award is handed out, July 15, 2026. See the live board above for the current read on every nominee.
Best Single-Game Performance is one of the fresh categories on the 2026 ESPYS ballot, and it exists to honor a single afternoon or evening when an athlete did something the sport had almost never seen. The 2026 field runs four names deep across four sports: a Dodgers two-way masterpiece, an 83-point NBA explosion, a three-grand-slam college baseball game, and a record-setting steals night in women's college basketball. Shohei Ohtani is the runaway favorite on the Kalshi board. The live board above ranks the current read on all four nominees.
The Best Single-Game Performance ESPY rewards one game, not a season, so the ballot reads like a highlight reel. Four performances made the cut, and each one cleared a bar that turns a box score into history.
Shohei Ohtani is the favorite, and the performance behind the nomination is the reason. In a 2025 postseason game, Ohtani threw six scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters, and hit three home runs, doing the work of an ace and a cleanup hitter on the same night. No player in the modern era has paired that kind of pitching line with a three-homer game. Ohtani is also on the Best MLB Player ESPY odds, and the two-way night is the signature clip of his 2025.
Bam Adebayo is the challenger the board takes most seriously. Adebayo scored 83 points in a 150 to 129 Miami Heat win over Washington, the second-highest single-game point total in NBA history behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100. A center known for defense and playmaking turned into the highest-scoring performance the league had seen in decades. Adebayo also appears on the Best NBA Player ESPY odds, which gives voters a second place to reward the same season.
Tyce Armstrong is the college baseball entry, and his line is almost hard to believe. Armstrong hit three grand slams in a single game for Baylor, matching a record that had stood for five decades. Twelve runs batted in on three swings is the kind of number that does not repeat, which is exactly what this category is built to celebrate.
Hannah Hidalgo rounds out the field for Notre Dame. Hidalgo set an NCAA record with 16 steals in a single game, a defensive performance so lopsided it rewrote the record book on its own. In a category built around scoring, Hidalgo's night is the one that wins on the other end of the floor.
Best Single-Game Performance is new to the 2026 ESPYS, so the category has no prior winners of its own. The 2026 recipient will be the first name ever attached to it. Its closest lineage at the ESPYS is the Best Record-Breaking Performance award, which has honored standout single feats since 2001 and is the natural predecessor for anyone tracking how ESPN rewards a landmark performance.
The recent Best Record-Breaking Performance winners map the pattern voters tend to favor. In 2025, Alexander Ovechkin won for passing Wayne Gretzky as the NHL's all-time goals leader at 895. In 2024, Caitlin Clark won for setting the all-division NCAA career scoring record at 3,951 points. LeBron James took the 2023 award for passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer at 38,652 points. Stephen Curry won in 2022 for becoming the NBA's career three-point king. Russell Westbrook won in 2021 for breaking Oscar Robertson's career triple-double record. Drew Brees won the 2019 award for the NFL career passing yards record, and Roger Federer won in 2018 for an eighth Wimbledon singles title. The award was not presented in 2020 during the pandemic.
The takeaway for the new category is simple. ESPYS voters reward the performance the wider sports audience watched and remembered, which is the same dynamic that makes Ohtani the favorite here.
The Best Single-Game Performance ESPY is decided at the 2026 ESPYS on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, airing live at 8 p.m. ET on ABC from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. The winner is chosen by fan voting and announced during the ceremony, and this market resolves that same night once the award is presented. There is no season left to play out and no statistic left to accrue. The only input left is the vote.
Shohei Ohtani's night also feeds the Best Team ESPY odds through the Dodgers, and both his and Bam Adebayo's ballots overlap with the Best Male Athlete ESPY odds. Hannah Hidalgo's college season connects to the Best Female Athlete ESPY odds. For the full slate of 2026 ESPYS contests and the wider board, browse sports prediction markets.
Resolves based on the winner of the Best Single-Game Performance award announced at the 2026 ESPYS on July 15, 2026, at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. Each nominee contract pays $1 per share if that nominee is named the winner; all other nominee contracts resolve to $0. ESPN's official announcement during the ceremony is the source of truth. If the ceremony is postponed past the resolution date or the category is not presented, the market resolves per platform-specific rules.
As of July 11, 2026, Shohei Ohtani is the favorite on Kalshi at 63c, with Bam Adebayo the closest challenger at 41c and Tyce Armstrong and Hannah Hidalgo trailing well behind. See the live board above for the latest price on every nominee.
The award is presented at the 2026 ESPYS on July 15, 2026, and the market resolves that night once the winner is announced. The ceremony airs live at 8 p.m. ET on ABC from Lincoln Center in New York.
The 2026 Best Single-Game Performance market is listed on Kalshi, where each of the four nominees trades as a separate contract that pays out if that nominee is named the winner.
Shohei Ohtani is the runaway favorite after a postseason game in which he hit three home runs and pitched six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. Bam Adebayo, whose 83-point game ranks second in NBA history, is the main challenger.
Watch the fan vote and how ESPN promotes each highlight into the July 15, 2026 ceremony, since the ESPYS are decided by audience voting. Ohtani's two-way night and Adebayo's 83-point game are the two performances drawing the most attention.