The Game Awards 2025 Nominees Revealed - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 November 2025 / 10,454 Views
The Game Awards has revealed the nominees for the 2025 awards show.
The most nominated game this year is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with 12 nomination, followed by Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei with eight nomination each.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is the publisher with the most nominations with a total of 19. This is followed by Kepler Interactive with 13 nominations, and Microsoft and Electronic Arts with 10 nominations each.
Those interested in voting can vote online on the official website. Voting ends on December 10 at 6:00 pm PST / 9:00 pm EST / December 11 at 2:00 am GMT.
The Game Awards 2025 will take place on Thursday, December 11 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, starting at 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET / 12:30 am GMT.
Here is the full list of nominees:
Game of the Year
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver)
Best Game Direction
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios/EA)
Best Narrative
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver)
- Silent Hill f (NeoBards Entertainment/KONAMI)
Best Art Direction
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
Best Score and Music
- Christopher Larkin, Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Darren Korb, Hades II
- Lorien Testard, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Toma Otowa, Ghost of Yōtei
- Woodkid and Ludvig Forssell, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Best Audio Design
- Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios/EA)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment) - Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Silent Hill f (NeoBards Entertainment/KONAMI)
Best Performance
- Ben Starr, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Charlie Cox, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Erika Ishii, Ghost of Yōtei
- Jennifer English, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Konatsu Kato, Silent Hill f
- Troy Baker, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Innovation in Accessibility
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft)
- Atomfall (Rebellion)
- Doom: The Dark Ages (id Software/Bethesda Softworks)
- EA Sports FC 26 (EA Canada/EA Romania/EA)
- South of Midnight (Compulsion Games/Xbox Game Studios)
Games for Impact
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia/AP Thomson/Hexacutable)
Despelote (Julián Cordero/Sebastián Valbuena/Panic) - Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Don’t Nod Montreal/Don’t Nod)
- South of Midnight (Compulsion Games/Xbox Game Studios)
- Wanderstop (Ivy Road/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Ongoing Game
- Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
- Fortnite (Epic Games)
- Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Marvel Rivals (NetEase Games)
- No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Best Community Support
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
- Fortnite (Epic Games)
- Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Best Independent Game
- Absolum (Guard Crush Games/Supamonks/Dotemu)
- Ball x Pit (Kenny Sun/Devolver Digital)
Blue Prince (Dogubomb/Raw Fury) - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
Best Debut Indie Game
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb/Raw Fury)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Despelote (Julián Cordero/Sebastián Valbuena/Panic)
- Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
- Megabonk (Vedinad)
Best Mobile Game
- Destiny: Rising (NetEase Games)
- Persona 5: The Phantom X (Black Wings Game Studio/Sega)
- Sonic Rumble (Rovio Entertainment/Sega)
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Cygames Inc.)
- Wuthering Waves (Kuro Games)
Best VR/AR Game
- Alien: Rogue Incursion (Survios)
- Arken Age (VitruviusVR)
- Ghost Town (Fireproof Games)
- Marvel’s Deadpool VR (Twisted Pixel Games/Oculus Studios)
- The Midnight Walk (MoonHood/Fast Travel Games)
Best Action Game
- Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios/EA)
- Doom: The Dark Ages (id Software/Bethesda Softworks)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Ninja Gaiden 4 (Platinum Games/Team Ninja/Xbox Game Studios)
- Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (Lizardcube/Sega)
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks) - Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios/EA)
Best RPG
- Avowed (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios/Deep SIlver)
- The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom)
Best Fighting Game
- 2XKO (Riot Games)
- Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (Capcom)
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (SNK Corporation)
- Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection (Digital Eclipse/Atari)
- Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Best Family Game
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- LEGO Party! (SMG Studio/Fictions)
- LEGO Voyagers (Light Brick Studios/Annapurna Interactive)
- Mario Kart World (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (Sonic Team/Sega)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios/EA)
Best Sim/Strategy Game
- The Alters (11 Bit Studios)
- FINAL FANTASY TACTICS – The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix)
- Jurassic World Evolution 3 (Frontier Developments)
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VII (Firaxis Games/2K)
- Tempest Rising (Slipgate Ironworks/3D Realms)
- Two Point Museum (Two Point Studios/Sega)
Best Sports/Racing Game
- EA Sports FC 26 (EA Canada/EA Romania/EA)
- F1 25 (Codemasters/EA)
- Mario Kart World (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Rematch (Sloclap/Kepler Interactive)
- Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (Sonic Team/Sega)
Best Multiplayer Game
- Arc Raiders (Embark Studios)
- Battlefield 6 (Electronic Arts)
- Elden Ring Nightreign (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Peak (Aggro Crab/Landfall)
- Split Fiction (Hazelight/EA)
Best Adaptation
- A Minecraft Movie (Legendary Pictures/Mojang/Warner Bros)
- Devil May Cry (Studio Mir/Capcom/Netflix)
- The Last of Us: Season 2 (HBO/PlayStation Productions)
- Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (FOST Studio/Ubisoft/Netflix)
- Until Dawn (Screen Gems/PlayStation Productions)
Most Anticipated Game
- 007 First Light (IO Interactive)
- Grand Theft Auto VI (Rockstar Games)
- Marvel’s Wolverine (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
- The Witcher IV (CD Projekt Red)
Content Creator of the Year
- Caedrel
- Kai Cenat
MoistCr1TiKaL - Sakura Miko
- The Burnt Peanut
Best Esports Game
- Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)
- DOTA 2 (Valve)
- League of Legends (Riot)
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Moonton)
- Valorant (Riot)
Best Esports Athlete
- brawk – Brock Somerhalder (Valorant)
- Chovy – Jeong Ji-hoon (League of Legends)
- f0rsakeN – Jason Susanto (Valorant)
- Kakeru – Kakeru Watanabe (Street Fighter)
- MenaRD – Saul Leonardo (Street Fighter)
- Zyw0o – Mathieu Herbaut (Counter-Strike 2)
Best Esports Team
- Gen.G – League of Legends
- NRG – Valorant
Team Falcons – DOTA 2 - Team Liquid PH – Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
- Team Vitality – Counter-Strike 2
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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It is so dumb that these awards are in December, surely January or February would be a better time.
I can’t take these awards seriously…
-GoY got 8 nominations (yet was excluded from the Overall Award),
-Nintendo was relegated almost entirely to Best Family & Best Racing (and Overall Award) (despite releasing the third most critically acclaimed game this year & MKWorld),
-MarioKart World snub for Best Music (also, GoY? Did they game have really good music?),
-How is DS2 and GoY recieving a nomination for Best Game Direction over something truly innovative like the dozens of indie juggernauts that released this year (e.g. Dispatched),
-etc etc etc.
oomphf I’m riled up lol. Anyways, all I care about are the reveals and the overall winner. I do genuinely look forward to seeing E33 have its time in the spotlight when it sweeps the awards this year! I’ve only heard glowing praise about it.
The Game Direction(and art direction) of GoY and DS2 are both absolutely sublime.
Did you miss the fact DK: Bananza is nominated for overall GoTY?
no, I saw DKBananza was nominated for the overall award…and for Best Family. And nothing else.
I saw the Best Music award was "Leveled up by Spotify". Thats probably why MKW didnt get the nomination. Nintendo doesnt do Spotify.
That Sonic 3 snub might be the biggest snub I've seen. It's the highest reviewed video game movie of all-time by critics, with 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 95% positive with an average score of 4.6/5. The Game Awards then nominates Until Dawn above it, an adaptation that many fans of the game hated because it doesn't follow the game's storyline very closely at all, a movie with 51% critic and 67% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, both far below Sonic 3.
I agree... but it did come out in December which is notoriously forgotten during the nomination process
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 neeeds to win.
Yotei not being nominated for GOTY is really sad to see.
We all know this year is Expedition 33 year and only Death Stranding 2 could challenge it for GOTY awards overall, even as I doubt it'll be the case.
But Yotei is such a tremendously great game that was badly mistreated pre release and now is being left out too.
Well, to each their own.
Dude what are you talking about?
Ghost of Yotei is just more bloated version of Tsushima.
That game is mediocre as game can be, and its funny to see it in any category as nominee.
At least they realized that nominating Yotei for GotY would just made people laugh at this year Game Award.
Oh yeah, a game nominated for 7 categories has no place to be nominated for GOTY.
There is literally nothing at all mediocre on Yotei, it's one of gaming most impressive titles to date in many ways, actually.
It being more of what Tsushima was is a great thing, as that game was great as well, and that's what franchises are about on the vast majority of cases. Just like Death Stranding 2, Hades 2, Hollow Knight Silksong, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2... 4 of the 6 games nominated there.
Tears of the Kingdom was a more bloated version of Breath of the Wild and it was nominated.
You shouldn't be mad at him. You see, he also thinks Legend of Dragoon was a great game. Yes, truly, I'm not kidding you! 🤣
It's fine, you also love a PS1 rpg, the wrong one, but that's how it is. The best game ever made is right there in my profile picture :)
? Yotei is basically GoT with some additions and a new area.... I mean, the game is amazing and still one of the best-looking games on PlayStation 5, but certainly not the game of the year. It should do well in other categories, though.
Same goes for Death Stranding 2 actually...
I know it's not technically wrong but it just feels wrong to nominate Expedition 33 on the Indie categories. The game had a lot of backing and a massive budget compared to indie standards, a stacked voice cast full of famous actors, and crazy high production values. Imagine being a small indie dev making your first game and losing the Best Debut Indie award to the biggest game release of the year?
Disgusting to see a sick joke such as GoY being nominated so many times in categories the game totally sucks at while some gems, like Stellar Blade, were almost forgotten last year.
I know those awards are just a sympathy vote but that still gets me anyway.
GoY and DS2 in best narrative... Seriously, where are we?
Happy for Kingdom Come... but genuinely surprised it was nominated over Split Fiction
As a follow up to It Takes Two (a previous GOTY winner)... Split Fiction is waaaaaaay better IMO
Weak GOTY category. DKB Looked kinda fun, but I don't know.
That’s one of the strongest GOTY nominee lists that I can recall.
Memory loss huh?
Only one of those games has an Opencritic score under 90, and it's an 89.
I doubt there are many more years where this has happened.
Of course you probably will reject any objective measure like that and say X years are all better based on whatever types of games you particularly like featuring more prominently. In which case the discussion is pointless.
By objective measures this is an exceptionally strong year. That's a fact.
So nothing more than personal opinion but you rejected my personal opinion as the first comment you made. Cool.
So it’s a fact, not a personal opinion?
How do facts work in your world, exactly? Your opinions are facts and other peoples opinions are just personal preference? Is that about right?
I get it, you hate the event. You DGAF. Does it make you feel better to keep saying it? If so then go ahead.
No, your opinion is not a fact (and thanks god for that or we would be living in a very sad world based on your taste ;) ).
I don't think there will ever be a GOTY category worse than last year.
Mid monkey game
Discount Mario
DLC
FreeCell
This is year is like the golden age of gaming on comparison.
2024 was a great year for games. The awards can nominate whatever they want but it was still a fantastic year for games. I played a lot of great releases last year.
Seems like a generally reasonable list.
Still no Xbox first party game nominated for GOTY
Donkey Kong Bananza should win GOTY.
goy had so many nominations and not included on goty don't make sense to me lol
Yes we know it ain't winning but it has the 2nd most nominations lol
It's an average game that's why
Seeing GOTY nominee made me realize how week this year was when it comes to games. Expedition will most likely win everything except maybe Narrative, i think DS2 was better when it comes to story telling, but in all other categories Expedition dont have any real competition.
The Witcher IV is up for most anticipated? Lol that could win it three years before it releases.
GTAVI is maybe the most hyped game coming out next year. Not for me as IDGAF about it but that game is the next coming of jesus to many people.
Yeah it was mostly hypothetical. Since it's not even close to release realistically GTA has no competition this year.
Happy to see KCD2 get its recognition! Overall, about what pretty much of all of us were expecting lol. Hades 2 has quickly become my GOTY, so that will get my pick.
That being said, Lumines Arise got shafted! I'm pretty sure it released a little before the cutoff date and it could've gotten quite a few nominations because it was more than deserving for additional praise.
Ghost of is up for 8 categories but not GotY. Surely that's a record? Also, is 2XKO even out? Early Access is not a released game. Glad Indie wasn't forgotten as it came out last December. And Serkis was the best performance in E33 and gets no nod.
Meh, otherwise expected, sure The Ad Awards will go well for everyone. I'll keep an eye on GDC and Baftas for actual awards.
They usually only do one game for each 1st party for publishing representation
All of these games reviewed higher than GoY... Split Fiction is several points higher and didn't make the list
Death Stranding 2 took the "Sony Spot" over GoY and is honestly better anyways
Fair enough and I didn't notice Split Fiction's absence, yeah, that deserves a spot in my view.
