It’s the end of 2025, and the 2025 Steam Awards are here to award the best games of the year. But with so many amazing games releasing this year, it’s definitely hard to choose which awards to give. Along with so many Steam users casting their votes, the outcomes are a complete mystery for everyone.
But the voting period has ended, and the results for the 2025 Steam Awards are in. The Steam Awards for this year feature 10 categories and nine games that won awards in those categories. And you may notice the strange discrepancy of 10 categories only having nine winners, so let’s talk about the winners and solve that mystery.
The 2025 Steam Awards Winners
With the conclusion of the voting period for the 2025 Steam Awards, the winners for the 10 categories are clear. The mentioned 10 categories for the 2025 Steam Awards, in order, are:
- Game of the Year
- VR Game of the Year
- Labor of Love
- Best Game on Steam Deck
- Better with Friends
- Most Innovative Gameplay
- Best Game You Suck At
- Best Soundtrack
- Outstanding Story-Rich Game
- Sit Back and Relax
So without further ado, let’s start our list of 2025 Steam Awards winners.
Game Of The Year And Best Game You Suck At
The winner of the game of the year category is the long-awaited sequel to Hollow Knight, Hollow Knight: Silksong. Officially announced on February 14, 2019, Hollow Knight: Silksong spent six years in development, but it was definitely worth it. The entire internet exploded with its official release on September 4, 2025, quite literally.
Several gaming platforms, including bigwigs like Steam and PlayStation, struggled with their servers. Players flooded their respective platforms to purchase Hollow Knight: Silksong, causing their servers to nearly break. However, fame alone won’t win you everything; the gameplay of Hollow Knight: Silksong is also phenomenal.
Its beautiful landscapes, massive world, fluid gameplay, and souls-like difficulty garnered it two whole awards. The first is obviously the GOTY award, and the second is the Best Game You Suck At award.
VR Game Of The Year
The VR GOTY award goes to a charming game by the name of The Midnight Walk. In The Midnight Walk, you befriend a strange lantern creature that illuminates the way through a world of handcrafted claymation. And as you delve deeper into the world, terrors in the dark lurch out to accost you, but you mustn’t allow them to succeed.
Complete various puzzles and outsmart the terrors of the night as you wander the dark fantasy world of The Midnight Walk. And you can experience all of this in both VR and flatscreen, giving you a choice in how you venture through the dark world of clay.
Labor Of Love
The Labor of Love award shows your loyalty and care for your game, something that players don’t take lightly. And players agree that Larian Studios wholeheartedly deserves this with Baldur’s Gate 3. Even two years after its initial release, Baldur’s Gate 3 still receives content and updates from Larian Studios.
Even as we go into 2026, Larian Studios will most likely keep supporting Baldur’s Gate 3 and its fans. And that’s something their fans will deeply appreciate for as long as they play Baldur’s Gate 3.
Best Game On Steam Deck
The Best Game on Steam Deck award goes to Hades II, the astonishing sequel of the mythological hack-and-slash rouguelite, Hades. The extravagant visuals paired with addictive gameplay make Hades II perfect for the on-the-go gaming style of the Steam Deck. So when you need to go somewhere, bring your Steam Deck and continue right where you left off.
Better With Friends
It comes as no surprise, but the winner of the Better With Friends award goes to the charming little indie game known as Peak. The concept of Peak focuses on cooperation, as you and your friends must help eachother to conquer the daunting mountain. If you haven’t played, then the ocean of clips showcasing the game should convince you.
Alongside the game’s concept, its silly nature makes playing with friends even better. Witnessing unthinkable yet hilarious situations beside your friends always provides the best gut-busting laughter.
Most Innovative Gameplay
The winner of the Most Innovative Gameplay goes to Arc Raiders with its surprisingly advanced gameplay. The many gameplay mechanics of Arc Raiders would make any list go on forever, but there is one that stands out. The first is how the ARC enemies adapt to situations through machine learning, allowing them to surprise players.
Arc Raiders takes its PVPVE seriously, with fights against players and ARCs feeling equally challenging and fun. Although Arc Raiders has its ups and downs, its life cycle has just started, so improvements are soon to come.
Best Soundtrack
Nobody wants a dead silent game; you have to have some ambiance, or in this case, a soundtrack. And the award for Best Soundtrack goes to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a story-rich turn-based RPG. Since you’re stuck in place when entering combat, it’d be dreadful to sit there in silence, occasionally broken up by combat.
So the soundtrack, along with the combat and the visuals that follow, must keep you busy while you’re stationary. And the soundtrack of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 accomplishes this with flying colors.
Outstanding Story-Rich Game
Many games released in 2025 have outstanding stories, and it seems almost impossible to choose. But the votes are in, and the Outstanding Story-Rich Game award goes to Dispatch, an episodic interactive story game. Dispatch took the internet by storm, with various forms of community content getting posted all over the place.
Since Dispatch uses an episodic formula, players had to wait for the next episode to release. And when new episodes were released, you knew the internet would explode with Dispatch. And with the first season done, fans have their finger on the trigger to explode the internet once again when the second season releases.
Sit Back And Relax
The Sit Back And Relax award goes to games where you, well, sit back and relax. And players have agreed that the best game to lean back on your couch and game for the evening is RV There Yet?. Similar to Peak, RV There Yet? is a cooperative adventure game where you and your friends must safely traverse the Mabutts Valley with your RV.
Is That It For The 2025 Steam Awards?
Unfortunately, that is indeed all for the 2025 Steam Awards; it isn’t as big as The Game Awards. Steam is one of the biggest gaming platforms out there, so the 2025 Steam Awards are no joke. But as 2025 comes to a close and 2026 opens up its arms, we get to experience a new year of games.
So let’s see what the new year has in store for us when it comes to games. But, until the next big game releases, enjoy the games you love, and happy New Year!
For more information on games and Steam, stay tuned with us.
