A week after announcing our 2025 Game of the Year nominees we are back with our winners. While many games were worthy of winning (even some that wern’t even nominated, 2025 was just that good) there can only be one winner! Keep in mind these are merely our writers collective opinions. If you agree or disagree with our selections that is quite alright, its what makes us all unique as gamers!
Just as a reminder here, while we did post this in our nominees article, we will post the process and requirements here as well so everyone knows how we got to these selections.
Process
Our process this year remains the same as it was in our inaugural Game of the Year awards from last year. Each writer was tasked with ranking their top 5 games in each category. If a game was voted first by that writer, it was given 5 points. Second place, 4 points, and so on. This led to many games receiving votes in many categories, though a few ended up standing out and earning the nominations.
We use this method because at our soul, Gamer Social Club is all about a bunch of gamers coming together to bring you the best gaming news and reviews that we can. Each writer has their own unique tastes and brings that to the table to form Gamer Social Club. And as always, these nominees are all worthy, and we stand by them as our nominees. If you agree or disagree with our choices, that’s completely fine! We are simply one website out there out of many, and we like to think we bring a unique viewpoin,t being everyday gamers.
That also means we have some differing opinions on what each category is. For example, some might look at the indie category as a category to highlight very small indies. Others might look at a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an indie despite its bigger size and scope. That debate has gone on for a while in the gaming sphere, so naturally it does here too! There’s no wrong answer for our team and what they put in each category, so keep that in mind for some of the broader games that might cover many genres!
Requirements
Keeping this one simple as it should be. In order for a game to be nominated, it had to have been released in 2025. For the writer to nominate any game, they had to have completed the game’s story. If there is no story (ie, multiplayer game, sports game), then they had to have played enough to get a good feel for said game.
Without further ado, let’s get into our nominees!
Game Of The Year
Doom: The Dark Ages
Hell is Us
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Winner
Donkey Kong Bonanza
Ghost of Yotei
Death Stranding 2
Best RPG
Avowed
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Winner
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
The Outer World 2
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy
Best Action-Adventure
South of Midnight
Hell is Us – Winner
Ghost of Yotei
Split Fiction
Mafia The Old Country
Donkey Kong Bonanza
Best Sports/Racing
Rematch
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds – Winner
Formula Legends
MLB The Show 25
Mario Kart World
Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots
Best Shooter
Doom: The Dark Ages – Winner
ARC Raiders
Borderlands 4
Battlefield 6
Sniper Elite: Resistance
Atomfall
Best Strategy/Sim
The Alters
PowerWash Simulator 2 – Winner
Date Everything!
RoadCraft
Out of the Park Baseball 25
Best Indie
BallxPit – Winner
Blue Prince
Gloomy Eyes
Promise Mascot Agency
Hollow Knight Silksong
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Best Horror
Total Chaos
Look Outside
ROUTINE
Cronos: The New Dawn – Winner
Dead Take
Silent Hill f
Best Remake/Remaster
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – Winner
Gears of War Reloaded
Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater
Yooka-Replaylee
Final Fantasy Tactics
Platypus Reclayed
Best Narrative
Death Stranding 2
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Winner
Ghost of Yotei
Mafia: The Old Country
Split Fiction
South of Midnight
Best Performance
Alex Jordan – The Alters
Erika Ishii – Ghost of Yotei
Ben Starr – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Johnny Santiago – Mafia: The Old Country
Jennifer English – Expedition 33 – Winner
Best Art Direction
Avowed
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Winner
Keeper
South of Midnight
Dispatch
Best Score
South of Midnight – Winner
Death Stranding 2
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Ghost of Yotei
Hell is Us
Publisher of the Year
Xbox/Microsoft – Winner
Nintendo
Devolver Digital
Kepler Interactive
Bandai Namco
Most Anticipated
Fable – Winner
Code Vein 2
Clockwork Revolution
Gears of War E:Day
Witcher 4
And there you have it, our 2025 Game of the Year winners! With how amazing 2026 is already looking, we can’t wait to see what this list looks like a year from now. Thanks for joining us throughout our 2025 coverage and helping Gamer Social Club grow. We’re just getting started!
