Steam users have voted, and Hollow Knight: Silk Song was elected over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for top honors in the 2025 Steam Awards. Voting for the 2025 Steam Awards began in November, with Steam users nominating eligible titles for 11 unique categories. The final vote took place during the Steam Winter Sale.
The 2025 Steam Award categories consisted of evergreen categories such as Game of the Year and Best Soundtrack, alongside unique categories such as Best Game on Steam Deck and the Sit Back and Relax Award. The nominations for the 2025 Steam Awards were selected by eligible Steam users during an initial voting window in late November, with the final round running from December 18th to January 3rd. Each of the Steam Awards' 11 categories had five nominees, with games such as TOP, Dispatchand ARC Raiders nominated for several awards.
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Steam Award 2025 winners revealed
Game of the year
- Hollow Knight Silksong
- Arc Raiders
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Dispatch
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
VR game of the year
- The midnight walk
- EA Sports F1 25
- Emissary Zero
- Le Mans Ultimate
- Pavlov
Labor of love
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Dota 2
- Helldivers 2
- No Man's Sky
- Rust
Best game on Steam Deck
- Hades 2
- Ball x Pit
- The clover pit
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
- Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Better with friends
- TOP
- Battlefield 6
- REPO
- Schedule I
- Split Fiction
Outstanding visual style
- Silent Hill b
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Dream BBQ
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- My little puppy
Most innovative game
- ARC Raiders
- Blue Prince
- Escape from Duckov
- Europa Universalis 5
- Belly Arena
Best game you suck at
- Hollow Knight: Silk Song
- Ring of Fire: Nightreign
- Marvel Rivals
- Path of Exile 2
- Where winds meet
Best soundtrack
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Delta rune
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Rift of the NecroDancer
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
Outstanding Story-Rich Game
- Dispatch
- Dying Light: The Beast
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
- No, I'm not a human
- The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered
Sit back and relax
- RV there yet?
- Chill With You: Lo-Fi Story
- Megabank
- Powerwash Simulator 2
- Slime Rancher 2
On January 3rd, after two weeks of final round voting, the 2025 Steam Award winners were officially revealed. Hollow Knight: Silk Song named game of the year over nominees Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Dispatch, ARC Raidersand Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. In addition to taking home the best Steam Award 2025, Hollow Knight: Silk Song also won the Best Game You Suck At award. While the category's name may be an honorable moniker, the honor of Best Game You Suck is often awarded to a game known for being a challenging experience from the start. Although it was not selected for Steam's 2025 Game of the Year Award, it is critically acclaimed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn't walk away from the Steam Awards empty-handed, as it was nominated for Best Soundtrack.
The Best Game on Steam Deck award, which often goes to titles that players can enjoy on the go via Steam Deck, was given to Hades 2. The latest project from Supergiant Games is also one of 2025's highest-rated Steam titles, with an overwhelmingly positive rating of 95% to 96% on Valve's platform at the time of writing. Two other indie titles, TOP and RV there yet?won the Better With Friends Award and the Sit Back and Relax Award respectively. Both TOP and RV there yet? is online multiplayer game that has captivated players throughout 2025.
Although it was first launched in 2023, Baldur's Gate 3 remained a popular title in 2025, thanks to various updates and fan support. This earned Larian Studios the hit RPG 2025 Labor of Love Award, with games like Helldivers 2 and No Man's Sky also gets nominations. In addition, ARC Raiders took home the most innovative game award over titles such as Blue Prince and Europa Universalis 5. With a high player count averaging over 400,000 active players since launch, Embark Studios' hit shooter has kept players coming back for more in its first two months of online service.
What's next for some of the award winners?
Hollow Knight: Silk Song developer Team Cherry announced in December that the game would receive additional content throughout 2026. The Sea of Sorrow expansion for Hollow Knight: Silk Song will be available as a free downloadable update sometime in 2026. The upcoming DLC will add new weapons and areas for the Hornet to explore, and new enemies to fight. While Sea of Sorrow will have some aquatic themes, further details on that are elusive as of this writing.
After the 2025 edition of The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive surprised fans by releasing a free “Thank You” update on all platforms. The patch included some new endgame challenges for players to test their character build on, with some battles that can really test Expedition 33 parry ability. Although it is unclear whether Expedition 33 will receive additional content, time will tell what plans Sandfall has throughout 2026 and beyond.
- Released
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September 4, 2025
- ESRB
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All 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer
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Team Cherry
- Publisher
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Team Cherry
