Game Awards 2025: All Game of the Year nominees and predictions

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What’s in pole position for gaming’s top prize? Let’s make some predictions

Key art for Clair Obscur, DK Bananza, Silksong, and Death Stranding 2 for GOTY 2025 predictions

The 12th Game Awards, scheduled for Dec. 11, were thrown wide open when Grand Theft Auto 6, which was previously expected to dominate the Awards this year, was delayed into 2026. That ought to have made for a much less predictable Game of the Year competition at the leading awards ceremony for the game industry — the Oscars of gaming, as it were. But that's not quite how things have worked out.

The top prize of the night is, of course, Game of the Year — and there are clear indicators of what makes a Game of the Year at The Game Awards, based on eleven years of data. We used these metrics to correctly predict last year’s winner, Astro Bot. We also used them to correctly call all six nominees for Game of the Year, which were announced alongside all the other categories on Nov. 17. Below, we pick the likely winner and rank the rest of the six nominees in order of their likeliness to win. The latter part is somewhat arbitrary, as this year there is a very, very clear favorite. We’ll find out whether there will be a shock upset at The Game Awards on Dec. 11.

Update (Dec. 9): In our final update before the awards ceremony, we predict the winners of the genre categories: Best Action Game, Action/Adventure Game, Role-Playing Game, Fighting Game, Family Game, Sim/Strategy Game, Sports/Racing Game, and VR/AR Game. At least these can't all go to Clair Obscur! We'll also call the winner of the Players' Voice vote. Check out our predictions below the ranked list of GOTY nominees. We can also now finalize our predicted tallies for award winners:

10 wins: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
1 win: Arc Raiders, The Alters, Baldur's Gate 3, Donkey Kong Bananza, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Fortnite, Ghost of Yōtei, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Mario Kart World, Midnight Walk, South of Midnight, Umamusume: Pretty Derby

That's right, we're predicting an almost total sweep for Clair Obscur, with the Sandfall Interactive game winning all but one category that it's nominated in. This would be a new record, beating the seven wins achieved by The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020. It also would have the extraordinary, unprecedented effect of no other game taking home more than one award (unless South of Midnight wins Innovation in Accessibility, a specialist category that we are not calling this year) — as well as seeing Hideo Kojima going home empty-handed.

What's going to win GOTY 2025?

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Expedition 33 stand in a line surveying an otherworldly landscape

Why it could win: A critically acclaimed role-playing game, strong on storytelling and performance, thematically resonant but also fun, with slick production values and shiny graphics — this is the stuff Game of the Year winners are made of. It’s an astonishing achievement from the relatively small debut team at Sandfall Interactive, which only adds to its cachet. Expedition 33 was looking hard to beat before it secured nominations in 12 categories, an all-time record. Now, it's a lock.

Weaknesses: Hardly any. At this stage, the biggest risk to Clair Obscur sweeping the Game Awards is voters assuming its dominance and voting tactically for other titles.

Momentum (holding steady): Prior to nominations, prediction markets put its chances of success at over 80%. Now, they're over 90%. It could not be more secure in the top spot.

Read Isaiah Colbert's full review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The rest of the GOTY nominees, ranked

2. Hollow Knight: Silksong

Why it could win: Team Cherry’s long, long, long-awaited follow-up to its 2017 indie hit could do well The Game Awards, in part because the original didn’t make much of an impression there and the jury will be keen to retrospectively reward it. Critics (mostly) adore it, it seems to have sold incredibly well, and its release was a real event that dominated the conversation for weeks.

Weaknesses: Silksong is very hard, which has divided some critics but is even more likely to divide the jury, which doesn't just stop at those members of the media who had to push through and review it. Many players bounce off the game or feel infuriated by it, and the surrounding discourse has been a bit fractious.

Momentum (holding steady): With five nominations, Silksong actually lags behind some other contenders, but no other games in 2025 have made as big a splash. Its high profile and very long tail mean it's still running (a very distant) second.

Read Patricia Hernandez's full review of Hollow Knight: Silksong.

3. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Why it could win: Hideo Kojima’s sequel to his divisive, prophetic 2019 sci-fi epic about hiking across the barren wasteland between bunkers of civilization is both grander and more palatable than the original. A technically astounding, absorbing, ambitious dad game, with rave reviews, published by Sony… it’s got all the features of a major GOTY contender, and it comes from the most famous video game auteur still working.

Weaknesses: Next to Clair Obscur’s underdog story, Death Stranding 2 feels like the establishment choice, despite its many oddities. And the closeness between Kojima and Keighley (who had a cameo in the first game) might make some jury members feel queasy about voting for it.

Momentum (📈 from No. 4): With an extremely strong seven nominations, Kojima shows once again how much of a favorite he is with the Game Awards jury. This is definitely the strongest traditional Game Awards contender of 2025.

Read Oli Welsh’s impressions of Death Stranding 2.

4. Hades 2

Melinoe uses the cast ability in Hades 2

Why it could win: Hades 2 is the best-reviewed new game of the year, with ratings of 95 on Metacritic and 94 on OpenCritic after it came out of early access in September. The original Hades won many individual publications' game of the year awards in 2020, and was only thwarted at The Game Awards by The Last of Us Part 2 — a perceived injustice some on the jury may be keen to correct.

Weaknesses: After over a year in Early Access, Hades 2 is a known quantity, and that's before you consider that it's a sequel; its greatness may be taken for granted by the jury. It's also not quite as big a popular hit as its stellar reputation with critics and enthusiasts might suggest. Finally, as an action-roguelike, it's quite far outside the jury's favored genres.

Momentum (📉 from No. 3): Hades 2's critical reception could hardly be better, but some fans aren't so delighted with the 1.0 release and it is perhaps too close to the original to inspire the jury. Silksong has more novelty. Despite six nominations, it feels like the momentum just isn't with it.

Read Ari Notis' full review of Hades 2.

5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Deliverance 2. The young man looks into the camera

Why it could win: This could be this year’s Black Myth: Wukong: an ambitious hit game from a developer operating outside the gaming establishment, delivering on core gamers’ ardent desire for massive solo adventures made without compromise. Deliverance 2 is a realistic medieval RPG with strong storytelling, and critics really liked it. Another similar game might be the 2015 GOTY winner, The Witcher 3. This is right in The Game Awards’ sweet spot.

Weaknesses: Black Myth: Wukong didn’t win GOTY — much to its producer’s chagrin. Just like Black Myth’s Game Science, Kingdom Come developer Warhorse is considered politically radioactive by some, after founder Daniel Vávra made pro-Gamergate comments in 2015. Perhaps more to the point, the game is a challenging time sink that isn’t that broadly played among journalists and jurors, despite respectable sales.

Momentum (📈 from No. 6): A very timely free weekend and franchise sale on Steam — combined with Vávra being as controversial as ever and taking shots at one of his competitors on X — has thrust Deliverance 2, the earliest front-runner for the 2025 Awards, back into the spotlight at just the right moment. It's also the one nominee most likely to get a boost from the 10% popular vote.

Read Cass Marshall's review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

6. Donkey Kong Bananza

DK in Donkey Kong Bananza throws his fist forward to destroy rocks as Pauline rides his shoulder.

Why it could win: With a rating of 90 or more on both Metacritic and OpenCritic, Bananza has the necessary level of critical support to compete. That’s not surprising in a Nintendo platformer, which counts against it. But, with its destruction gameplay, resuscitation of Donkey Kong as a lead character, and status as the standard-bearer for a new console, it has more novelty value than your average Mario game, and makes for a more interesting story.

Weaknesses: Family-oriented platformers tend to underperform in Game of the Year, due to perceived immaturity and under-developed storylines. Astro Bot bucked that trend last year, but two wins in a row seems unlikely. Plus, Nintendo’s greatness is assumed and taken for granted.

Momentum ((📉 from No. 5): Bananza has just two nominations (including for Game of the Year) — the lowest number of any previous GOTY nominee. The fact it didn't make it into the Action/Adventure category alongside its Family nomination is a particularly dire sign of its chances for the big prize.

Read Josh Broadwell's full review of Donkey Kong Bananza.

What's going to win the other categories?

Best Action Game

Battlefield 6
Doom: The Dark Ages
Hades 2
Ninja Gaiden 4
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Since it's outmaneuvered in both GOTY and Best Independent Game by Clair Obscur, we have to assume this category will go to critics' favorite Hades 2, as it did to Hades back in 2020. It's not a particularly strong category otherwise, despite a decent late challenge from Battlefield 6, so Supergiant Games looks fairly assured of victory here.

Best Action/Adventure Game

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Split Fiction

As always, Action/Adventure is a hard-fought category, which this year features three of the six GOTY nominees — and it's all the tougher since the presumptive GOTY winner doesn't fall into this category. Assuming we're right and Silksong is running a distant second to Clair Obscur in the Game of the Year race, it would be logical to see Team Cherry's game pick up this award. But it wouldn't be shocking to see either of its fellow nominees, Death Stranding 2 or Ghost of Yōtei, take it home.

Best Role-Playing Game

Avowed
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Monster Hunter Wilds
The Outer Worlds 2

Congratulations to Obsidian Entertainment on getting two games nominated in the RPG category in one year — surely an unprecedented feat. That's all the comfort any of the other nominees can take, since of all Clair Obscur's nominations outside of Game of the Year, this is the lockiest of locks.

Best Fighting Game

2XKO
Capcom Fighting Collection 2
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection
Virtua Fighter 5 REVO World Stage

A rather ignominious win in a historically weak category here for the new Fatal Fury, which is likely to take the award by default, as the only complete new game on the docket. Its fellow nominees comprise three retro releases and one early access game — 2XKO, a potential future winner, but not yet. Evidence that the fighting game genre really doesn't see enough new releases to support this category.

Best Family Game

Donkey Kong Bananza
Lego Party
Lego Voyagers
Mario Kart World
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Split Fiction

Again, as the sole GOTY nominee in this category, Bananza seems guaranteed a win. Nintendo's strongest competition here is probably from itself, in the form of Mario Kart World, but jury members have another category they can vote for that game in, which isn't the case for Bananza.

Best Sim/Strategy Game

The Alters
Civilization 7
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Tempest Rising
Jurassic World Evolution
Two Point Museum

This is one of the harder categories to call. The best-reviewed game here is Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's a retro remake, which historically tends to put the jury off when it comes to picking winners. Two Point Museum is a deeply satisfying game within its niche, but The Alters has more crossover appeal (and is on Game Pass), so it's our pick.

Best Sports/Racing Game

EA Sports FC 26
F1 25
Mario Kart World
Rematch
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

This category tends to be won by a racing game, if there's a credible contender among the nominees, and Nintendo's Mario Kart World certainly qualifies. As with Donkey Kong Bananza, it's also a way for the jury to recognize the impact the Switch 2's release had on the year in games.

A little guy with a flaming pot for a head addresses a figure wearing a pointy hat sheltering under a giant book in The Midnight Walk

Best VR/AR Game

Alien: Rogue Incursion
Arken Age
Ghost Town
Marvel's Deadpool VR
The Midnight Walk

A tough category to call, and a real competition between multiple strong, original VR games. Amazingly for an award within a neglected, niche sector, this is one of the most interesting categories in the show. Arken Age, Ghost Town, and The Midnight Walk are all much loved by the community, while the Alien and Deadpool games are more than good enough while having brand recognition. It's a tight race indeed, but we'll go with The Midnight Walk for its arresting claymation art style.

Players' Voice

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Dispatch
Genshin Impact
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Wuthering Waves

Despite Clair Obscur's overwhelming popularity among critics, it wasn't immediately clear that it had the large, mobilized fan support to win in this 100% publicly-voted category. But its triumph in the fan-voted Golden Joysticks Ultimate Game of the Year competition laid that idea to rest.

Best Game Direction

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Hades 2
Split Fiction

This award goes the same way as Game of the Year more often than not, but there are exceptions. Notably, in 2019, the year Sekiro won GOTY, the Game Direction award went to Death Stranding, no doubt powered by Kojima's superpowered auteur status. Can he repeat the feat? It's not out of the question, although Death Stranding 2 is necessarily less innovative than its predecessor, and Clair Obscur is a much stronger GOTY front-runner than Sekiro was. When there's an overwhelming favorite for GOTY, as with Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017 or Elden Ring in 2022, the Game Direction award is sure to follow. That's definitely the case this year.

Best Narrative

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Silent Hill f

Unlike Best Game Direction, this award very rarely goes to the GOTY winner; it's happened only once before, with The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020. The jury also used to be much more adventurous in its picks; early winners included the likes of Her Story and Disco Elysium, but as the jury has grown and internationalized, more mainstream games tend to win. Clair Obscur's big narrative swings would stand out among these solid but unexciting nominees, even if it weren't the GOTY front-runner.

Best Art Direction

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Hades 2
Hollow Knight: Silksong

This is another category where indie winners used to be common, but have been much less so in the last five years or so. Nevertheless, Silksong is a genuine contender here, as is Ghost of Yōtei (Ghost of Tsushima won the award in 2020). But we expect Clair Obscur to win the Elden Ring/Metaphor: ReFantazio Memorial Award for Out There Enemy Designs this year as Sandall Interactive's game sweeps almost every category it's eligible for.

Best Score and Music

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Hades 2
Hollow Knight: Silksong

It's an exact repeat of the nominees in the Art Direction category, and we're expecting the same result here, too. There's no doubt about this one — Lorien Testard and Alice Duport-Percier's score has been a firm favorite with game music enthusiasts all year.

Best Audio Design

Battlefield 6
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Ghost of Yōtei
Silent Hill f

This is the one craft category we don't see going Clair Obscur's way. The jury tends to make a strong distinction between score and audio, and Clair Obscur's audio isn't particularly outstanding. The jury's preference for lavish production values in this category brings it down to a contest between Battlefield 6 and Ghost of Yōtei. It's a toss-up, but we reckon this is where the jury will choose to recognize the impressive craft of the Sucker Punch Game.

Best Performance

Troy Baker as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Charlie Cox as Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Jennifer English as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Erika Ishii as Atsu in Ghost of Yōtei
Konatsu Kato as Hinako Shimizu in Silent Hill f
Ben Starr as Verso in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Troy Baker once looked like a strong contender in this race, and theoretically there is a chance that Clair Obscur's votes will be split between its three nominees. But Golden Joysticks voting suggests there can only be one realistic winner.

Baldur's Gate 3
Final Fantasy 14
Fortnite
Helldivers 2
No Man's Sky

Larian Studios already has two consecutive wins for Baldur's Gate 3 in this category, following two in a row for Final Fantasy 14. Support for the ever-popular RPG has slowed down a bit, but Larian's friendly tone and humorous and detailed approach to updating its game are still best in class.

Best Independent Game

Absolum
Ball x Pit
Blue Prince
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Hades 2
Hollow Knight: Silksong

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's defensible, but still controversial, inclusion in the indie categories raises an interesting question: Will the jury risk the illogic of the presumptive Game of the Year not winning in these categories in order to shine a light on other games like Hades 2 or Silksong? GOTY winners have historically won their genre categories too, but (in case we needed reminding), indie is not a genre, and an indie nominee has never won before, so there's no exact precedent. Still, we're betting the jury will choose Clair Obscur in most down-ballot categories.

Best Debut Indie Game

Blue Prince
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Despelote
Dispatch

Even after Megabonk dropped out, this is a strong year for the Debut Indie category, with the hugely popular Dispatch and the critically acclaimed Blue Prince and Despelote. In a way, it's a shame a big production like Clair Obscur is going to steal the limelight in this entry-level category, but on the other hand, it serves to underline how unprecedented Sandfall Interactive's achievement is.

Games for Impact

Consume Me
Despelote
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
South of Midnight
Wanderstop

There's plenty of quality in this rather ill-defined category for games with a "pro-social message." The battle will likely come down to Ecuadorian soccer memoir Despelote, the best-reviewed game of the bunch, and Deep South action-adventure South of Midnight, which, thanks to its relatively big budget and availability on Game Pass, is the highest-profile game here. Profile doesn't always win in this category, but Despelote's appeal is perhaps more academic than emotional, so we're going with the more emotive South of Midnight.

A big robot scares an Arc Raider who wishes they looked at Arc Raiders map and Arc Raiders interactive maps before exploring the Arc Raiders maps

Best Multiplayer

Arc Raiders
Battlefield 6
Elden Ring Nightrein
Peak
Split Fiction

This might be one of the hardest-fought categories this year. There's a strong case to be made for every nominated game, and there are some massive hits here too; Battlefield 6 is riding the wave of its rare victory over Call of Duty. Still, the recently released Arc Raiders has all the momentum, and with a massive and vocal online army of advocates, it's certain to benefit from the 10% popular vote — this is one category that's liable to be close enough for fan voting to make a real difference.

Best Ongoing Game

Final Fantasy 14
Fortnite
Helldivers 2
Marvel Rivals
No Man's Sky

The battle here is between Marvel Rivals, the major new entry in this field, and Fortnite, a two-time winner celebrating its eighth consecutive Ongoing Game nomination. Fortnite has had a particularly good year, topped off with some much-loved updates, including the addition of The Simpsons. Marvel Rivals is the only nominee that hasn't won this category before, but its early-year prominence has tailed off; oddly, it feels like the veteran of the field has more momentum than the newbie. We're calling it for a big Fortnite comeback.

Best Mobile Game

Destiny: Rising
Persona 5: The Phantom X
Sonic Rumble
Umamusume: Pretty Derby
Wuthering Waves

The nominations for the Mobile category are close to being a travesty, with recognizable franchises honored regardless of their (sometimes quite poor) quality and Wuthering Waves returning for a second year because the jury couldn't think of anything better. It may be wishful thinking, but in this undistinguished company, we're going with the one game that has good reviews, and that enjoyed a genuine moment of viral popularity with players: the delightful horse-girl sports sim, Umamusume.

Best Adaptation

A Minecraft Movie
Devil May Cry
The Last of Us season 2
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
Until Dawn

The jury passed up the chance to nominate the technically eligible Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie from December 2024 in this category; we're stuck with a lemon like Until Dawn in its stead. The real Best Adaptation fight is between the hugely popular (and pretty fun) Minecraft Movie and season 2 of HBO's The Last of Us. Despite some controversy and fan unrest surrounding it, we're betting the prestige ambitions of the TV show will win out over the basic crowd-pleasing of A Minecraft Movie.

Most Anticipated Game

007 First Light
Grand Theft Auto 6
Marvel's Wolverine
Resident Evil Requiem
The Witcher 4

There's no chance GTA 6 doesn't win this 100% fan-voted award for the second year running, despite some strong competition like The Witcher 4. There's precedent for a double winner, too: Elden Ring won the award twice, in 2020 and 2021.

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