The Game Awards 2025 Nominees: What You Need to Know

The Game Awards is an annual ceremony celebrating the best of video games. The 2025 edition is set to be held on December 11, 2025 at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles.

Nominees were announced on November 17, 2025. 
Games that released by November 21 were eligible, including expansions, remakes and DLC.

Game of the Year (GOTY) Nominees

The top category always draws the most attention. The nominees for Game of the Year in 2025 are:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive) — leads the pack with 12 nominations. Wikipedia+1

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony)

• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)

• Hades II (Supergiant Games)

• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver)
  
  

These titles reflect a mix of big-budget, narrative-driven games (like Death Stranding 2), beloved indie follow-ups (Silksong), and strong mid-budget narrative experiences (Kingdom Come II).

Other Major Highlights & Trends

• “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” is the most nominated game this year, with 12 nominations.

• Independent games are getting strong recognition—Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong both show how indies continue to compete in top-tier categories.

• The presence of a Nintendo title (Donkey Kong Bananza) in the GOTY list highlights that traditional console publishers are still major players.

• Story, direction, art, and innovation seem to be major themes for 2025’s nominees. As a Spanish-language source notes, the nominations span narrative, art design, accessibility, and adaptation categories.

Why These Nominations Matter

The nominations tell us several things about gaming in 2025:

1. Blend of Indie and AAA – While large studios have the resources, indie studios are delivering standout experiences and being recognised accordingly.

2. Narrative & Art Focus – Many nominees are celebrated not just for fun gameplay, but for story, mood, direction, and visual design.

3. Global Reach & Platform Diversity – Nominees include games from different platforms (PC, console, maybe even handheld) and different publishers from around the world.

4. Community & Critical Reception Aligning – Many of the nominated games had strong critical reviews, large fan followings, or both. For example, Hades II was mentioned by analysts as a likely nominee due to high Metascore.

What to Watch For

• Winners Announcement – The ceremony on December 11 will reveal which games will take home the awards across dozens of categories (not just GOTY).

• Category Break-outs – Beyond GOTY, watch for Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction and other major craft categories.

• Emerging Genres / Platforms – It will be interesting to see if any VR, mobile, or cross-platform titles break into major categories.

• Publisher / Platform Impact – Which publisher or platform gets the most awards or nominations may influence future studio strategies.

Here’s a condensed yet comprehensive table of the major categories and nominees for The Game Awards 2025. You can use it as an infographic or embed it into a blog-post.