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The six nominees for The Game Awards 2025 Game of the Year were Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This list is for The Game Awards’ GOTY category, not the separate annual awards chosen by other publications.
The Game Awards 2025 Game of the Year nominees
The Game Awards describes its Game of the Year category as “Recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.” Its six 2025 nominees were:
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Hades II
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
The official Game Awards category page lists the six finalists. Epic Games Store’s November 17, 2025 roundup independently names the same set. The category list is only one part of the ceremony’s full slate of nominees across multiple awards.
Nomination notes and platform context
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 received 12 nominations across The Game Awards categories, according to Epic Games Store’s November 17, 2025 roundup, which described it as the most nominations received by a game in the awards’ history at that time.
- Donkey Kong Bananza is identified by Nintendo as a Nintendo Switch 2 title in its nominee roundup.
- In a November 17, 2025 article, Xbox Wire listed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II among the nominees and said some nominees, including the first two, were playable through Xbox Game Pass at that time. That dated statement does not confirm their current catalog availability.
These platform references do not establish current prices, physical editions, retailer stock, or availability in every region for all six games.
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