There is no single objective winner among the best games of 2015. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has the strongest consensus-style case: it won The Game Awards’ Game of the Year, PCGamesN also selected it, and PlayStation.Blog readers voted it Best PS4 Game. But the year’s standouts depend on what you value—award results, critics’ rankings, reader votes, or a particular kind of game.
Use the distinctions below to find a game by platform, play style, and the reason it made the list. The picks are not a merged or universal ranking: they reflect different awards, reviews, reader polls, and editorial opinions.
Which game was officially named Game of the Year for 2015?
The Game Awards named The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt its 2015 Game of the Year. That is a specific award result, not proof that every publication or player agreed. The show took place at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 3, 2015; its archive reports more than 2.3 million viewers. The Game Awards’ 2015 archive records the winners.
Other category winners reveal how varied the year was: Super Mario Maker won Best Family Game, Splatoon won Best Multiplayer Game, Her Story won Best Narrative, and Rocket League won both Best Independent Game and Best Sports/Racing Game. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain won Best Action/Adventure and Best Score/Soundtrack.
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Best games of 2015 to start with
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — the broadest consensus pick
Why it stands out: Alongside its Game Awards win, PCGamesN chose it as its 2015 Game of the Year, and PlayStation.Blog readers selected it as Best PS4 Game. These are separate editorial and reader results, but together they make it the most defensible lead if you want a game repeatedly recognized across different kinds of lists.
Best for: Players seeking a major single-player role-playing game, especially on PS4 among the platforms represented by the cited award result. Check the edition and platform before buying.
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Bloodborne — a strong PlayStation-focused alternative
Why it stands out: It appeared among the contenders mentioned in the PlayStation.Blog reader-awards recap and in Metacritic’s 2015 rankings. Those appearances indicate recognition, not a win in the cited PlayStation poll. Read the PlayStation.Blog recap and Metacritic’s annual ranking.
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain — award-winning action and soundtrack
Why it stands out: The Game Awards recognized it in both Best Action/Adventure and Best Score/Soundtrack. PCGamesN placed it as runner-up to The Witcher 3 in its Game of the Year selection. The combination makes it a strong pick if you value action-adventure design and music, though the award categories and editorial ranking are distinct judgments.
Her Story — the narrative-driven choice
Why it stands out: It won The Game Awards’ Best Narrative, and PCGamesN selected it as Indie Game of the Year. It is a useful counterpoint to the year’s large-scale releases: the recognition here is specifically for storytelling and independent-game distinction.
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Rocket League — the multiplayer and sports/racing crossover
Why it stands out: The Game Awards gave it both Best Independent Game and Best Sports/Racing Game. Its two wins show that a game could be recognized across category lines rather than fitting neatly into only one kind of list.
Super Mario Maker — creative play and family recognition
Why it stands out: It won The Game Awards’ Best Family Game and also appears in Metacritic’s annual 2015 ranking. The awards establish its category recognition; Metacritic’s placement is a separate critics’-score-based reference.
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Prune — a personal pick beyond the blockbuster conversation
Why it stands out: TIME writer Matt Peckham chose it as his personal game of the year, illustrating that smaller mobile and PC releases were part of the conversation too. Peckham explained: “Prune is my game of the year because I think it does what it sets out to better than any of those other games–interface to aesthetics to eerily existential subtext.” Read his TIME selection.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How do the 2015 rankings differ?
These lists answer different questions, so their results should not be combined into a made-up master ranking.
| Source and method | What it identifies | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| The Game Awards: awards by category | The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won Game of the Year; other games won category awards. | An award-body result, with a distinct winner for each category. |
| PCGamesN: editorial selections | The Witcher 3 was its Game of the Year; Metal Gear Solid V was runner-up; Her Story was Indie Game of the Year. | A publication’s editorial judgment, not an award vote or aggregate score. |
| PlayStation.Blog: reader awards | The Witcher 3 won Best PS4 Game; Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Metal Gear Solid V were among contenders mentioned in the recap. | A poll of the blog’s readership in a PlayStation-focused context. |
| Metacritic: annual ranking by displayed Metascore | Its page includes Super Mario Maker, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. | A critics’-score ranking; the page excludes games with fewer than seven critic reviews, and scores can vary by platform or edition. |
| GameSpot: staff-ranked feature | A staff-ranked top 25 spanning large releases and independent games. | A curated editorial list, rather than a single award result. |
| TIME: writer’s personal choice | Matt Peckham chose Prune. | One writer’s explicitly personal Game of the Year pick. |
Which 2015 games are worth revisiting?
Start with the kind of experience you want, then use the source of recognition to understand why a game appears on a shortlist. A category win may point you toward a particular strength; a personal or editorial pick reflects the selector’s taste; a review aggregate gives a score-based view, with platform and edition affecting what is displayed.
- For a cross-list choice: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has recognition from an awards body, an editorial outlet, and PlayStation.Blog readers.
- For PlayStation-focused options: Consider Bloodborne or The Witcher 3, while checking the specific edition available for your system.
- For storytelling: Her Story won Best Narrative at The Game Awards.
- For multiplayer: Splatoon won The Game Awards’ Best Multiplayer Game; Rocket League earned recognition in independent and sports/racing categories.
- For creative or family play: Super Mario Maker won Best Family Game.
- For a less blockbuster-centered pick: Try Prune, TIME writer Matt Peckham’s personal choice.
What do the reader-vote numbers tell us?
In a January 2016 post, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation.Blog author Justin Massongill said the 2015 Game of the Year event drew nearly 600,000 votes in total. That is Sony’s reported participation figure for its event, not an independent measure of all players’ preferences. Massongill wrote: “We asked you what the best games of 2015 were, and you responded in kind — with nearly 600,000 votes in total!”
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