Hades 2 Once Again Stands Alone As The Highest-Rated Game Of The Year
Supergiant 
Josh has been playing video games for longer than he can remember, kicking things off with a Master System before upgrading to a Mega Drive. Covering the industry since 2018, if a game has a strong story – or even better, the decisions you make determine the course of that story – odds are he’s going to like it. Or, you know, put Sonic or Pikachu on the cover and that’ll get his attention too.
Not one, but two challengers came for Hades 2’s highest-rated game of the year crown earlier this month. As more reviews for those competitors have poured in, their aggregate scores have fallen, and Supergiant’s sequel once again stands alone.
As we speed towards the culmination of what has been a fantastic year for great video games, big and small, I’ve lost count of how many times the title for highest-rated game of 2025 has changed hands. Blue Prince, Split Fiction, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have all been leading the pack at various points throughout the year.
When Hades 2 settled on a score of 94, I assumed the race was over. That was the most unexpected of contenders, Arc Raiders, and a dark horse that I hadn’t even heard of until it matched Supergiant’s score, The Seance of Blake Manor, racked up 94s right alongside it. Unfortunately for those two unlikely disruptors, neither has been able to maintain their grip on that 94 score quite like Hades 2 has.
Where Did Arc Raiders Go?
Particularly Arc Raiders, which, while still incredibly popular and pulling in close to half a million concurrent players on Steam alone, is now all the way down in 17th according to OpenCritic’s game of the year rankings. The extraction shooter now has an 89, an aggregate score that has, in part, dropped significantly due to a scathing Eurogamer review that criticized its use of AI voice generation.
The Seance of Blake Manor hasn’t experienced quite as steep a drop-off as Arc Raiders. Just two points lower as more reviews have been published, and it’s currently still the fourth-highest rated game of the year, nestled neatly between Expedition 33 and Donkey Kong Bananza. I’m sure if developer Spooky Doorway had been offered that spot ahead of the Blue Prince-like’s release, it would have snatched your hand off.
Even though 89 is an incredibly impressive score for an online multiplayer game – one of the highest ever – there are clearly Arc Raiders fans who think it deserves better. There’s even a campaign to try and make sure it wins Game of the Year over current frontrunner Clair Obscur at The Game Awards. That’s not really how it works, and while it has an outside chance of getting a nomination, it’s very unlikely that the campaign will prevail.
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So, for now, the highest-rated game of the year crown is, once again, the sole property of Hades 2, and it might well stay that way, although I’ve said that before. The only game left on 2025’s release slate that I can see challenging Melinoe for that crown is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but between you and me, Samus’s next 3D outing is giving me high 80s vibes rather than mid 90s.
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