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.
With only a few days to go, it looks like we’re going to be closing out 2025 without the Half-Life 3 reveal many of us have been waiting for. You can still go back to the original games, though, and it seems that’s exactly what many of you have been doing while we wait for official news about that third game.
That’s according to statistics shared by HowLongToBeat. The site, which is a go-to for checking how long it takes people to beat games, shares various top tens at the end of each year to show what people have been playing most. One of 2025’s top tens focuses on the retro games we’ve been revisiting, and both prior Half-Life games made the cut.
Half-Life: Alyx is not on the list, but it doesn’t qualify for retro status as it isn’t old enough.
To make it onto HowLongToBeat’s retro top ten, games need to be at least 20 years old. That means Half-Life 2, which was the most played retro game of 2025 according to this list, only just qualified, having launched in 2004. I’m assuming many of you have been playing the first two games back-to-back, as just a few places below the sequel in sixth, you’ll find the original Half-Life.
The early 2000s was the golden age of PC gaming as the industry began to boom, and these games played had a major part in it.
The 20-year retro qualifier for HowLongToBeat’s list means games released in 2005 are eligible for the first time, and one title that launched that year made it into the top ten – the original God of War. Perhaps, much like those of us waiting for the next Half-Life, God of War fans have resorted to playing the older games amid radio silence on that Metroidvania spinoff we’re meant to be getting.
Snake Eater Seems To Have Inspired People To Play More Metal Gear Solid
Elsewhere, it seems Metal Gear Solid Delta, a remake of the third game, has inspired people to go back and play its predecessors, both of which made the top ten. Metroid Prime is also in there, likely because people were preparing for the launch of Metroid Prime 4, but perhaps also because fans who didn’t like the newest game in the series wanted to go back and remind themselves of how good they used to have it.
The final four spots on the list are occupied by GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas, which I’d hazard to guess always make the cut, and Final Fantasy 7, alongside the original Final Fantasy. Unsurprising to see FF7 on there considering how much more popular it is today thanks to its remake trilogy, but the original FF getting enough love to make it the second most played retro game, and the oldest on this list by a full decade, is a welcome and impressive surprise.
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