The Game Awards 2025: full guide to date, time, nominations and biggest reveals

The Game Awards 2025 is shaping up to be gaming’s unofficial New Year’s Eve, a single night where the industry pauses, argues on social media, and then collectively loses its mind over world-premiere trailers. Hosted once again by producer and presenter Geoff Keighley, the show returns on 11 December 2025 with a live audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and a global livestream that turns living rooms into mini watch parties.

This year, all eyes are on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the Sandfall Interactive RPG that leads the pack with a record-breaking twelve nominations and has quickly become the symbol of how big a so-called indie production can really get.:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

When and where to watch The Game Awards 2025

If you are wondering how to follow the chaos, the good news is that The Game Awards 2025 is easier to watch than ever. The ceremony will be streamed free worldwide on the usual suspects – YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok and Steam – with an additional broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video for the first time, a move that underlines how tightly games and streaming television have become intertwined. Official partners are promising high-quality streams, from YouTube’s 4K feed to Twitch’s upgraded 2K broadcast, so the show once again aims to feel like a global live event rather than a niche industry ceremony watched only by insiders.:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

How long will the show last?

The exact runtime has not yet been locked in, but if previous years are any indication you should expect an evening that stretches to around three to four hours, including a brisk pre-show packed with smaller announcements that often end up being anything but. The format will be familiar: a rapid-fire mix of award presentations, emotional developer speeches, musical performances and an aggressive schedule of new trailers that barely gives social feeds time to breathe between reveals. Veteran viewers joke that the show is as much a marketing blowout as an awards ceremony, yet that blend has also turned it into one of the few gaming broadcasts that groups of friends routinely build watch parties around.:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Nominations: Clair Obscur leads a stacked field

Awards still matter, though, and 2025’s nominations paint a sharp picture of where the conversation has been all year. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads with a historic dozen nods across categories such as Game of the Year, narrative, art direction, role-playing and score, firmly positioning Sandfall Interactive as the studio to beat. Media outlets are already predicting that the team will walk away with armfuls of trophies, even in the face of heavyweights like Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. At the same time, the ballot is crowded with everything from experimental indies to lavish sequels, reflecting just how wide the spectrum of modern gaming has become. For many players, the real drama will come from the Players’ Voice category, a purely fan-voted award that often turns into a referendum on which community can mobilise the fastest rather than which game critics prefer.:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

Beyond the headline categories, the nominations list also highlights how international the scene has become. European, North American and Japanese studios sit side by side, streaming platforms such as Netflix appear in the adaptation category, and long-running live service titles compete with brand-new releases in ongoing and community support awards. Sandfall’s breakout success has also reignited debates over what counts as indie, with some critics arguing that games of this scale deserve their own label rather than being squeezed into traditional boxes.:contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

World premieres and likely announcements

Alongside the trophies, The Game Awards has built its brand on being a launchpad for what comes next, and 2025 is no exception. Creative Assembly has already confirmed a world-premiere trailer for the next Total War project, fuelling speculation that this could be one of the most ambitious strategy titles the studio has ever attempted. Exodus is slated to get a fresh look, while Capcom and other publishers are expected to lock in long-awaited release dates for projects such as PRAGMATA and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Rumours continue to swirl around an Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake, a mysterious new entry in the Control universe tentatively dubbed Control: Resonant, a possible Titanfall 3 revival and even a PC release date for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, though experienced fans have learned not to treat every insider hint as a promise etched in stone.:contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

Horror and action fans have their own wish-lists going into the show. Resident Evil Requiem is tipped for a new trailer and maybe even a surprise appearance from series favourite Leon S. Kennedy, while smaller studios such as Neon Giant are quietly preparing what could be breakout moments with projects like the currently-codenamed Project Impact. At the same time, Keighley has tried to temper expectations by confirming a couple of high-profile absences: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake and The Witcher IV will be staying home this year, giving other fantasy and action franchises more room to soak up the spotlight.:contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}

Music, performances and crossovers

Music has become a defining part of The Game Awards, and 2025’s line-up continues that tradition in a darker, more theatrical direction. Goth rock and metal veterans Evanescence will take the stage to perform Afterlife from the upcoming Devil May Cry Netflix anime, a crossover that neatly sums up how the lines between games, animation and music are blurring. Expect the show’s orchestra to return as well, weaving themes from the year’s biggest nominees into sweeping medleys that often end up being the segments viewers rewind the most the next day, long after the last trophy has been handed out.:contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

How voting and fan drama work

Around all of this spectacle sits the part that matters quietly in the background: voting. A large international jury drawn from more than 150 outlets provides ninety percent of the weight in most categories, while public voting via the official website and Discord makes up the other ten. The exception is the chaotic Players’ Voice poll, which is entirely fan-driven and already generating drama as communities campaign for their favourites and accuse one another of brigading the vote across three rounds. With ballots open right up until the eve of the show, it is not unusual to see fanbases pushing last-minute voting drives to try and drag their favourite into the final cut.:contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}

Why The Game Awards still matter

Veteran viewers like to joke that they know exactly what to expect from a Keighley show by now: a slow-burn intro, a wall of trailers, a couple of awkward celebrity cameos and maybe even a random puppet or mascot wandering on stage to confuse everyone for thirty seconds. Memes predicting the running order start circulating days before the event, complete with bingo cards for surprise cancellations and world-premiere logos. Yet there is a reason those same fans still clear their calendars every December. Love it or hate-watch it, The Game Awards 2025 is one of the only nights where horror die-hards, strategy nerds, fighting game purists and cozy-game enjoyers all argue about the same thing at the same time. Whether Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweeps the board or the prizes end up split across a crowded field, the biggest story might be the same as always: for a few hours in December, games once again feel like the centre of pop culture.