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The top four best reviewed new games of 2025 on Metacritic are all indie masterpieces, and it’s looking increasingly likely history will be made at this year’s Game Awards. We have been treated to some stellar releases so far this year, and right now gamers have the release date for Ghost of Yotei to anticipate on October 2nd. Ghost of Yotei reviewed extremely well and even better than Tsushima, but so far 2025 is the year of breathtaking indies. As the price of games rises due to inflation and development costs for AAA spectacles ballooning, indie games are showing that development fees in the hundreds of millions are not required to make an exceptional experience.
Top four best reviewed new games of 2025 are all indie
The top four best reviewed new games for 2025 on Metacritic are as follows:
- Hades – 94
- Clair Obscur Expedition 33 – 93
- Hollow Knight Silksong – 92
- Blue Prince – 92
There is the caveat that Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are ranked first and second respectively at 95, but they don’t count as new releases as they are just rereleases for the Nintendo Switch 2. After the top four highlighted above, there is the excellent Split Fiction at 91, equal to Donkey Kong Bananza, and Death Stranding 2 just sneaks in at tenth with 89.
Below are the top 5 rated games on Metacritic for the years 2019 to 2024:
- 2019:
- Dragon Quest XI S – 91
- Disco Elysium – 91
- Nier Automata Game of the Yorha Edition – 91
- Resident Evil 2 Remake – 91
- Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers – 90
- 2020:
- Persona 5 Royal – 95
- The Last of Us Part 2 – 93
- Half Life Alyx – 93
- Hades – 93
- Demon’s Souls Remake – 92
- 2021:
- The House in the Fata Morgana Dreams of the Revenants – 96
- Forza Horizon 5 – 92
- Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker – 92
- Chicory A Colorful Tale – 90
- Super Mario 3D World Bowser’s Fury – 89
- 2022:
- Elden Ring – 96
- Portal Companion Collection – 95
- God of War Ragnarok – 94
- I Was A Teenage Exocolonist – 91
- Chained Echoes – 90
- 2023:
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – 96
- The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom – 96
- Metroid Prime Remastered – 94
- Resident Evil 4 Remake – 93
- Super Mario Bros Wonder – 92
- 2024:
- Astro Bot – 94
- Elden Ring Shadow of Erdtree – 94
- Metaphor ReFantazio – 94
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – 92
- UFO 50 – 91
As you can see from the above lists, 2025 is the first time since at least 2019 the top four highest rated games of the year have all been indie experiences. It dates back even further, but going back to 2019 is enough to illustrate just how good a year 2025 has been for indies.
Game Awards history looks likely
Game Awards history could be made this year when the event hosted by Geoff Keighley rolls around in December. So far, in the entire history of The Game Awards, an indie game has never won the coveted Game of the Year trophy. Indies have been nominated for the main prize, but an indie adventure has never been amongst the list of winners highlighted below:
- Dragon Age Inquisition – 2014
- The Witcher 3 – 2015
- Overwatch – 2016
- The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild – 2017
- God of War – 2018
- Sekiro Shadows Die Twice – 2019
- The Last of Us Part 2 – 2020
- It Takes Two – 2021
- Elden Ring – 2022
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – 2023
- Astro Bot – 2024
While an indie game has never won Game of the Year before, that is looking likely to change this year. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the favorite to win judging by word-of-mouth, but Hades 2 is a probable contender and so are Hollow Knight Silksong and Blue Prince, as predicted by former PlayStation President, Shuhei Yoshida. As for non-indie games, Split Fiction published by EA will likely be nominated, and so will Death Stranding 2.
Not only is this likely to be the year an indie game wins Game of the Year, but it’s also the best opportunity for it to happen as 2026 is set to be flooded with major names and releases such as GTA 6, Marvel’s Wolverine from Insomniac Games, and James Bond from Hitman’s IO Interactive.
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