Valve has announced the winners of the Steam Awards 2025, highlighting the games that resonated most strongly with the platform’s player base over the past year. Unlike juried award shows, the Steam Awards are driven entirely by community voting, which gives the results a different kind of weight within the PC gaming ecosystem. While the ceremony may not attract the same level of mainstream attention as larger industry showcases, it remains a useful snapshot of what active players valued, played, and talked about throughout the year.
The most prominent winner was Hollow Knight: Silksong, which took home both Game of the Year and Best Game You’re Bad At. After a long and often scrutinized development cycle, the sequel finally arrived and largely met expectations. Players responded positively to its expanded world design, new movement and combat options, and the shift in perspective to Hornet as the central character. Its difficulty curve also proved challenging enough to earn recognition in a category that celebrates demanding gameplay.
Baldur’s Gate 3 received the Labor of Love award, reflecting continued community appreciation well after launch. Ongoing updates, refinements, and additional content have kept the game relevant and active, reinforcing its reputation as a modern benchmark for large-scale role-playing games. The award underscores how sustained post-release support can be just as important as a strong debut.
In the Outstanding Visual Style category, Silent Hill f stood out for its distinctive artistic direction. Set in 1960s Japan, the game departs visually from earlier entries in the series while maintaining an unsettling tone. Its use of folklore-inspired imagery, combined with music by Akira Yamaoka and a story written by Ryukishi07, helped it leave a strong impression on players.
ARC Raiders was recognized for Most Innovative Gameplay. The award reflects interest in its cooperative structure, which blends surface-level combat encounters with underground social spaces and player-driven choices. Rather than reinventing the shooter genre entirely, the game was praised for rethinking how cooperation and progression intersect.
Several other titles rounded out the list of winners. The Midnight Walk was named VR Game of the Year, largely due to its handcrafted clay visuals and stop-motion-inspired presentation. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Best Soundtrack for its atmospheric score, while Dispatch earned Best Story. PEAK was recognized as Best Game to Play with Friends, Hades II took Best Game on Steam Deck, and RV There Yet? received the Sit Back and Relax award.
Taken together, the Steam Awards 2025 results reflect a year where players gravitated toward games with strong post-launch support, distinctive artistic identities, and systems that encourage long-term engagement. Rather than signaling radical shifts in taste, the winners point to steady demand for depth, polish, and meaningful interaction across genres.
