The nominees for the 2025 Steam Awards have been chosen, and voting is now open to select the winners. Steam users can cast their vote until January 3 at 10:00 AM Pacific, at which point Steam will announce the winners. Voting for the nominees kicked off on November 24 and gave users the chance to nominate their choices for each category.
For the most part, this year’s nominees make sense for each category, which is honestly surprising when you let the general public choose. Personally, I’m surprised that Megabonk didn’t get nominated for the Best Game on Steam Deck Award because I certainly think it’s a great game to play on the Steam Deck. I also think it’s funny that it got nominated in the Sit Back and Relax Award, because that game is not relaxing. My Little Puppy, which got a nod under the Outstanding Visual Style Award, is a game I had never heard of, but it looks adorable.
Finally, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is noticeably missing from the Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award. Maybe it’s fatigue from the game already winning so many awards, but it still deserves a nod over Dying Light: The Beast. Look, we loved Dying Light: The Beast and consider it one of our favorite games of 2025, but its story was not the reason to play it.
Game of the Year Award
- Dispatch
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- ARC Raiders
VR Game of the Year Award
- The Midnight Walk
- F1 25
- Pavlov
- Le Mans Ultimate
- Emissary Zero
Labor of Love Award
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Dota 2
- No Man’s Sky
- Rust
- Helldivers 2
Best Game on Steam Deck Award
- Hades II
- Digimon Story Time Stranger
- Ball x Pit
- CloverPit
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
Better With Friends Award
- Schedule I
- Battlefield 6
- R.E.P.O.
- Split Fiction
- Peak
Outstanding Visual Style Award
- Silent Hill f
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- ENA: Dream BBQ
- My Little Puppy
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
Most Innovative Gameplay Award
- Escape From Duckov
- Europa Universalis V
- Mage Arena
- Blue Prince
- ARC Raiders
Best Game You Suck at Award
- Where Winds Meet
- Marvel Rivals
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Elden Ring Nightreign
- Path of Exile 2
Best Soundtrack Award
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Rift of the NecroDancer
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Deltarune
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award
- Dying Light: The Beast
- No, I’m Not a Human
- Dispatch
- The Last of Us Part II Remastered
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Sit Back and Relax Award
- PowerWash Simulator 2
- Chill with You : Lo-Fi Story
- Megabonk
- Slime Rancher 2
- RV There Yet?
