Valve has just announced the winners of the 2025 Steam Awards, and the biggest surprise is finding out that the Game of the Year prize went to Hollow Knight: Silksong instead of the massive favorite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. According to a report from earlier this week, Sandfall Interactive's beloved turn-based JRPG has already dethroned Baldur's Gate III as the third game with the most GOTY awards, trailing only Elden Ring and The Last of Us Part II.
Even so, Steam users have chosen their preferred game released last year, and they have gone with Team Cherry's long-awaited Metroidvania sequel. Valve does not disclose percentages or anything like that, so we'll never know the exact margins, but a win is a win.
Hollow Knight: Silksong also wins the 'Best Game You Suck At' award, which is a category that includes the most challenging titles. The other finalists, for the record, were Path of Exile II, Elden Ring Nightreign, Marvel Rivals, and Where Winds Meet.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does still win a prize for the best soundtrack, though. The other winners are:
- The Midnight Walk - VR Game of the Year Award
- Baldur's Gate III - Labor of Love Award (for a game supported well long past its launch date)
- Hades II - Best Game on Steam Deck Award
- Peak - Better With Friends Award
- Silent Hill f - Outstanding Visual Style Award
- ARC Raiders - Most Innovative Gameplay Award
- Dispatch - Outstanding Story Rich Award
- RV There Yet? - Sit Back and Relax Award
In our shortlist of the best ten games released in 2025, I called it the year of the indie-ish, and that's very much shown in the 2025 Steam Awards. Which game did you vote for, anyway? Let us know in the comments section!
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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