Golden Joysticks 2025: Indies Surge to the Front of the Ultimate Game of the Year Shortlist

GamesRadar has finally lifted the curtain on the Ultimate Game of the Year shortlist for the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 – and the headline is unmistakable: this is the year independent creators seized the spotlight. After revealing most categories earlier, the show saved its biggest reveal for last, and the final dozen paints a clear picture of where the conversation has gone in 2025. Despite a calendar crammed with heavily marketed blockbusters, the cultural pulse belongs to smaller teams, experimental ideas, and projects built with startling focus.

The shortlist features 12 games – a broader net than many awards bodies cast – and the majority were developed by independent studios. In some cases, those studios partnered with major publishers for distribution or marketing, but the statistic that turns heads is simple: of the seven indie-made nominees, five arrived without a big publisher’s backing. That’s not a token presence; it’s a realignment.

Here’s the full roster of nominees for the Golden Joysticks 2025 Ultimate Game of the Year:

• Blue Prince
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Peak
• Hades II
• Split Fiction
• Ghost of Yotei
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Silent Hill f
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Donkey Kong Bananza

It’s an undeniably strong twelve – and yes, one of them first appeared at the tail end of 2024, narrowly missing the previous awards window. But more interesting than eligibility minutiae is how the list maps the year’s conversations. Blue Prince, Hades II, Peak, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong arrived without a major label attached, each staking a claim on the cultural moment for different reasons: audacity, systems depth, distinct art direction, or the simple power of a new idea polished to a gleam. Two other nominees – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Split Fiction – were built by independent teams but launched with triple-A publishing muscle behind them, underscoring a hybrid reality of 2025: independence is a creative posture as much as it is a funding model.

Just as notable are the absences. Big-name sequels and tentpoles that dominated previews – DOOM: The Dark Ages, Borderlands 4, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, and Battlefield 6 – didn’t make the cut. You can debate the whys (release timing, mixed reception, or simply stiffer competition), but the message is consistent: in 2025, gravity shifted toward games that took sharper creative swings and landed them.

There’s also a fan narrative coalescing around the shortlist. Community chatter increasingly points to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as the people’s champion – a striking sign of where the year’s emotional investment lies. It’s not the only indie galvanizing players, of course. Hades II has expanded a beloved formula without losing its razor edge. Silksong continues to be the metroidvania dream fans were willing to wait for. Peak and Blue Prince carved out identities through bold design choices rather than spectacle. Together they embody the argument that smaller teams, freed from the gravitational pull of safe bets, shape the medium’s forward edge.

To be clear, this isn’t a purity test against triple-A craft. Several blockbusters on the list – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Ghost of Yotei, Silent Hill f, and Donkey Kong Bananza – demonstrate that scale and polish still matter when they serve a strong creative vision. But the shortlist’s center of mass is unmistakably indie, and that matters. Awards don’t simply celebrate what happened; they codify what the year will be remembered for.

As always, the Golden Joysticks remain a people’s choice showpiece: a jury curates the nominees, and the public decides the winners. Voting for Ultimate Game of the Year is now live, which means the story of 2025 isn’t finished – it’s being written in real time by players choosing which experiences deserve the final spotlight.