Sam (He/Him) is the former Managing Editor of DualShockers and is now Senior Reporter at TheGamer. He’s been in and around games media for six years now and has held a variety of roles within the industry, including staff writer, SEO editor, managing editor and global head of gaming content.
During this time, he’s hosted a PAX panel, interviewed game directors, reviewed some of the biggest games, attended Gamescom, Summer Game Fest, and Tokyo Game Show and covered some of the hottest news stories.
Sam has been learning Japanese for almost three years now, with the intention of bringing you news from the country before anyone else.
He’s been playing video games for as long as he can remember, and you can regularly find him on his PS5 or Nintendo Switch. When he’s not playing games, he’ll no doubt be watching his beloved Ipswich Town.
2025 has been a strange year for video games. It seems much of the conversation has surrounded Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as it set a record haul at The Game Awards and scooped up TheGamer’s Game of the Year, but there was plenty to get excited for around it.
Clair Obscur aside, there was a flurry of excellent games that were released this year, including Hades 2, Blue Prince, and the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong. In fact, while it might not have necessarily seemed it, 2025 is the third-best year for video games since 2011, according to Metacritic review scores.
2025 Was A Surprisingly Excellent All-Round Year For Video Games
Now, 2025 was another awful year for the games industry at large. Thousands lost their jobs, corporate greed prevailed, and generative AI started to really rear its ugly head. In terms of game releases, though, it was stellar.
We looked at every year on Metacritic since 2012 and found that, if you averaged out every year’s top ten, 2025 sits in a healthy third place, but there is a pair of big asterisks, which we’ll get to shortly.
In first place is 2023, a generational year for games. Its top ten had an average review score of 92.6, with Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom both scoring 96s. Metroid Prime Remastered came in third that year, scoring a 94, and Resident Evil 4 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder rounded out the top five, with a 93 and 92, respectively.
In second place is 2018, a year I’d forgotten the incredible depth of the games. Of course, Red Dead Redemption 2, with its score of 97, and God of War, with its 94, are standouts, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Forza Horizon 4, Celeste, Hollow Knight, and Monster Hunter: World all play their part in the top ten. It ended with an average of 92.1.
Then we come to 2025, a year with an average review score of 91.9 and, as I mentioned, two giant asterisks. Now, every year has a range of remakes and remasters gracing its top ten. 2023 had Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4, 2018 had Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Shadow of the Colossus. 2025’s top two games, however, are “Switch 2” versions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Don’t get me wrong, these are two of my favorite games of all time, but I don’t know if these upgrades necessarily warrant re-reviews, especially when Tears of the Kingdom was part of 2023’s fantastic average. I don’t make the rules, though, and 2025’s top ten is the third highest since 2012.
If you were to replace Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild’s 95s with more modest 92s, 2025 would become the seventh-best year since 2012.
2020 and 2024 tied for the next two spots, both averaging 91.8. Most surprisingly, the Nintendo Switch’s launch year, 2017, which featured two 97-rated games in Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, came in sixth, averaging 91.7.
At the other end of the spectrum is 2019, the worst of the last 13 years. No game scored higher than a 91, with Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Illusive Age, Disco Elysium, Nier: Automata – Game of the YoRHa Edition, and Resident Evil 2 all tying for the top spot. 2019’s Game Awards GOTY winner Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice scored a 90, which puts it bang on the average for the year.
The bottom three are rounded out by 2021, which averaged 90.2, and 2021, which averaged 90.4.
You can check out the full data below:
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Prior to 2012, Metacritic’s top review scores are a bit skewed. It’s not uncommon to see iterations of yearly sports franchises, like the NHL, NBA, or FIFA games, scoring 90+, which brings the averages way up. And while 2025 certainly has some caveats, it’s been a great year for games, so let’s just enjoy it.
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For me it’s one of the worst years in gaming history, period.
2025-12-25 09:20:11
I’ve enjoyed the games on offer this year. From Blue Prince to E33. We’ve had Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei too. Hades 2 had an incredible launch as did Silksong. Lots of choice and there’s lots more than that as well
2025-12-24 14:34:42
