The Game Awards nominations are safe and stacked

The Game Awards – which seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year – have announced their 2025 nominations. Their website is also an absolute shit-show as of this writing on Monday afternoon, as fans presumably log on to vote for their favorite game. But if you're just looking to figure out if your favorite thing got nominated – and hey, great news if that "favorite thing" of yours is Expedition 33 – you've come to the right place.

The big ticket items of the year all got hit with nominations. Unless you've been living under a rock (and honestly, good for you), it should come as no surprise that Sandfall Interactive's Expedition 33 is the most nominated game at the show, nearly doubling the number of nominations earned by the second place contender. And we've all been following along with this show long enough to know that host Geoff Keighley's Hideo Kojima fetish will manifest in a lot of (very much deserved, in my opinion) nominations for Death Stranding 2.

Then of course there are the usual suspects: the big Sony game of the year (Ghost of Yōtei), sequel to the the game that should've won GOTY in 2020 but inexplicably lost to The Last of Us: Part 2 (Hades 2), the most anticipated video game of all time (Silksong), and a good excuse to give Josef Fares as many chances to say something crazy on a live broadcast as possible (Split Fiction).

But just because all of these nominations are pretty expected doesn't mean they're bad or that I (or even we, as a site) disagree with many of them. It's been an absolutely stacked year for video games – despite, you know, the implosion of the livelihood of the people who make the games and the press that cover it (thanks for your support, readers) – and there are some incredible titles that came out in 2025. And to The Game Award's credit, a lot of those games are well represented here.

It's really lovely to see a Game of the Year category that includes three games from smaller team and publishers. The big hitters Sony and Nintendo only got one slot each, and the third "big publisher" is Deep Silver which – no offense to them, they do great stuff – aren't in the same ballpark as the "big three."

Are there weird, bullshit omissions like Dispatch only getting one nomination? Of course, there always are. Are people going to be extremely Not Normal about Arc Raiders only being nominated for best multiplayer game? Almost certainly. But overall? Pretty good list this year.

Below you'll find the nominees for every category for The Game Awards 2025. The winners of each category will be announced as quickly as possible between a mountain of commercials during The Game Awards live broadcast on Dec. 11.

Game of the Year

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Best Game Direction

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

Innovation in Accessibility

• Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Atomfall
• Doom: The Dark Ages
• EA Sports FC 26
• South of Midnight

Best Independent Game

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

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

Best Debut Indie Game

• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Despelote
• Dispatch
• Megabonk

Best Action Game

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

Best Action/Adventure Game

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

Best Role Playing Game

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

Best Sim/Strategy Game

• The Alters
• Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles
• Jurassic World Evolution 3
• Sid Meier's Civilization VII
• Tempest Rising
• Two Point Museum

Best Fighting Game

• 2XKO
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2
• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
• Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage

Best Family Game

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

Best Sports/Racing Game

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

Best Multiplayer

• Arc Raiders
• Battlefield 6
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Peak
• Split Fiction

Best Narrative

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

Best Audio Design

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

Best Score & Music

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

Best Art Direction

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

Best Adaptation

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

Best Mobile Game

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

Best Ongoing Game

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

Content Creator of the Year

• Caedrel
• Kai Cenat
• MoistCr1TiKal
• Sakura Miko
• The Burnt Peanut

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike 2
• DOTA 2
• League of Legends
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
• Valorant

Best Esports Athlete

• brawk
• Chovy
• f0rsakeN
• Kakeru
• MenaRD
• Zyw0o

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

Best Community Support

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

Most Anticipated Game

• 007 First Light
• Grand Theft Auto VI
• Marvel's Wolverine
• Resident Evil Requiem
• The Witcher IV