Best Indie Game of 2025 - Article
by Mark Nielsen , posted on 19 January 2026 / 2,560 Views
2025 was a big year for highly anticipated indies. The mythical Hollow Knight: Silksong finally released, the anticipated follow-up Hades II left Early Access, and the infinity project Deltarune finally reached the halfway mark. The latter unfortunately has an award allergy and could not be here today (maybe next time), but there were a lot of superb indies to celebrate last year, so let's get right into it.
The Shortlist:
Hades II
Fast Fusion
Shujinkou
Hollow Knight: Silksong
BALL x PIT
The Runner-Up:
Hades II
With Supergiant Games' previous track record of creating original games each time, a sequel to Hades was perhaps not something everybody expected, but that didn't stop it from happening and turning out to be pretty damn successful. It's a glorious roguelike, with fantastic combat and fun customization, with another heavy and amusing dose of Greek mythology. Is there enough drama left in the underworld for a third entry? Realistically, yes.
The Winner:
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Winning 2025's Best Indie award we have a game that didn't even make the Most Anticipated shortlist last year because nobody really believed it was finally coming. And yet there it was. Like its predecessor, Hollow Knight: Silksong asks a lot of its player both in terms of their skill and patience, but the grandiose splendour of its world, excellent boss fights, and extremely satisfying combat make it worth the commitment. It's been a hell of a journey to get here, and a hell of a journey is exactly what it is.
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While I did really enjoy CO:E33, it is admittedly a stretch to call a team of former Ubisoft developers supported by a multimillion dollar publisher Kepler an indie title.
Silksong deserved this category. Well earned! Such a competitive year for indies.
I’m already really excited for 2026… the dev behind The Binding of Isaac and the dev team behind Shovel Knight are expected to have new titles coming this year, so those should be good!
While I agree that Expedition 33 should count as AA (as well as Baldur's Gate 3), multibillion for Kepler is really a stretch. Wikipedia says: "The company's gross revenue peaked at $50 million in 2022". While I think Expedition 33 may have beat that revenue record, we are still a far cry from multibillion, besides E33 Kepler published Bionic Bay, Rematch and Neon Abyss 2 in 2025. I guess that the revenue may have broken past 100 million. I also suspect that Silksong and Hades aren't too far behind that.
Fixed
Very much looking forward to Mina the Hollower.
So am I! I'm looking forward to that and to Neverway, Abyss X Zero, Pony Island 2, Alabaster Dawn if by some miracle it can be finished this year, and Perfect Tides: Station to Station (which comes out in just three days now!). And The Witch's Bakery admittedly, ha ha! :D And Deltarune. Always more Deltarune.
Strong list of indies nominated. Cool to see.
