Key Highlights:
- The Game of The Year nominees have been officially unveiled.
- Of these contenders, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is most likely to win.
- That being said, all of this year’s contenders are very worthy of the title.
The annual Game of the Year Awards finally makes its return on December 11, 2025. The event promises a ton of exciting new reveals, as well as of course, awards across various categories, including the coveted Game of the Year award.
Competition is incredibly fierce this time around, and the spot for the GoTY seems to be set up for a bloodbath. Join us as we take a deep dive into each game of the year nominee, and evaluate (based on personal opinion) their worthiness in the run.
All Game of the Year Nominees
Your nominees for GAME OF THE YEAR at #TheGameAwards 2025 on Thursday, December 11. pic.twitter.com/VQTXMfNHOQ
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) November 17, 2025
The Game Awards X account has revealed the list of nominees for its flagship prize. The list covers a wide range of genres, ranging from RPGs to indie action adventure titles and platformers:
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Hades II
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
This is not counting the other nominations across other categories, which have their own set of contenders. Going back to the GoTY list, almost all of these contenders go neck for neck in terms of overall quality this time around.
Not a single game in this particular list is unworthy of the title. It’s just that 2025 has been a fantastic year for video games (and perhaps too fantastic), and the is absolutely no room for anything but the best.
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We being the list with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a fantastic, one of a kind experience from Hideo Kojima. In some ways, it feels like a tribute to the weird and wacky things Kojima has created throughout his career and is a solid Hideo Kojima game (and a good one at that too!) overall.
Donkey Kong Bananza is a fantastic platformer game from the creators of Super Mario Odyssey, and that expertise shows in the game’s fantastic level design and overall execution. While some may dismiss Bananza as yet another platformer, it has a surprising amount of depth and character to it, and is peak Nintendo.
Hades II and Hollow Knight Silksong are our true indie entries in the list, and are also perhaps one of the most anticipated games of the year. Picking one over the other is going to be incredibly difficult (even if Hades II was technically in early access before) given how impactful both titles have been.
The list ends with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, yet another strong entry that released in the first half of 2025. The game deserves all the praise it gets and is a genuinely worthy game of the year contender, one that could even give Clair Obscur a run for its money.
Amongst All These Contenders, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Is More Likely to Win
You might have noticed that the list intentionally excludes Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 from it. This was on purpose, given how big of a juggernaut the game is when compared to the competition.
While Expedition 33 isn’t exactly a complete indie title, it regardless remains an exceptional effort from what is essentially a team of passionate developers creating their very first independent game (even if bits of it were outsourced).
The game has a stellar soundtrack, a mesmerizing story and an accessible combat system that proved to the world that turn based combat still remains relevant in the modern age.
While Expedition 33 is most certainly not a perfect title by any means (it has more than a few issues in the third act), it comes pretty darn close to being one.
The game has also managed to break through most records at TGA, surpassing 12 nominations across differing categories.
Expedition 33 is a fantastic game, and might just be too good, overshadowing what was so far a truly exceptional year in the video gaming industry (at least in terms of video game releases).
