2025 Steam Awards Voting Opens: Here Are the Game of the Year Nominees
Valve has announced the finalists for the 2025 Steam Awards, the annual tradition where winners are determined entirely by community votes. Launching alongside the Winter Sale, the voting process brings this year’s most talked-about titles face-to-face. Games that managed to stand out among thousands of releases throughout 2025 are now competing to be crowned “the best” across various categories.
The voting period, which opened with the Winter Sale, will run until January 3rd at 18:00 UTC (21:00 GMT+3). Players can cast their votes for their favorite nominees in each category through their Steam accounts. Winners will be announced immediately after voting concludes.
Fierce Competition for Game of the Year
This year’s biggest prize, the “Game of the Year” category, features some particularly strong contenders. We’ll be watching the battle between the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong, which made a massive splash with its release, the historically immersive Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has been making waves across social media.
Here are all the categories and finalists for the 2025 Steam Awards:
🏆 Game of the Year
Titles that dominated the year with compelling gameplay, gripping stories, and flawless design:
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- ARC Raiders
- Dispatch
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
👓 Best Game on Steam Deck
Delivering the best portable experience:
- Digimon Story: Time Stranger
- Hades II
- CloverPit
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
- BALL x PIT
🤝 Better With Friends
Games that shine when played co-op or competitively:
- Battlefield 6
- Split Fiction
- PEAK
- Schedule I
- REPO
🎨 Outstanding Visual Style
Standing out with unique art design:
- FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
- SILENT HILL f
- ENA: Dream BBQ
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
- My Little Puppy
💡 Most Innovative Gameplay
Offering never-before-seen mechanics:
- Blue Prince
- ARC Raiders
- Europa Universalis V
- Escape from Duckov
- Mage Arena
😫 Best Game You Suck At
Hair-pulling difficulty that somehow wins your heart:
- Path of Exile 2
- Where Winds Meet
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Marvel Rivals
🎵 Best Soundtrack
Strengthening atmosphere through music:
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Rift of the NecroDancer
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- DELTARUNE
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
📖 Outstanding Story-Rich Game
Scripts that draw players deep into the narrative:
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- Dying Light: The Beast
- The Last of Us Part II Remastered
- No, I’m not a Human
- Dispatch
🛋️ Sit Back and Relax
Best picks for unwinding and de-stressing:
- Slime Rancher 2
- Chill with You: LoFi Story
- RV There Yet
- Megabonk
- PowerWash Simulator 2
❤️ Labor of Love
Games that continue receiving support years after launch:
- Rust
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Dota 2
- HELLDIVERS 2
- No Man’s Sky
👓 Best VR Game of the Year
Pushing the boundaries of virtual reality:
- F1 25
- Emissary Zero
- Pavlov
- Le Mans Ultimate
- The Midnight Walk
You can cast your vote in the Steam Awards by visiting this link.