The 2025 Steam Awards results are in, and PC gamers made their choice crystal clear. Hollow Knight: Silksong took home Game of the Year, beating out heavy favorites like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, ARC Raiders, Dispatch, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The victory is particularly sweet considering Silksong was completely shut out at The Game Awards in December, where Clair Obscur swept nearly every category. But on Steam, where players actually buy and play games, Team Cherry’s brutally difficult metroidvania reigns supreme.
Silksong Wins Big
Hollow Knight: Silksong didn’t just win Game of the Year. It also claimed the Best Game You Suck At award, a category that celebrates games known for punishing difficulty and demanding mastery. That makes Silksong the only game to win multiple awards this year, a fitting achievement for a sequel that spent years in development and instantly became one of Steam’s biggest releases when it finally launched in September 2025.
The Steam Awards are community-voted, meaning players themselves decide winners by casting ballots during the annual Winter Sale. Unlike The Game Awards, which relies on a jury of journalists and industry professionals, Steam Awards purely reflect what the PC gaming community thinks. And clearly, that community believes Silksong delivered something special that Clair Obscur, despite its critical acclaim and multiple Game Awards wins, didn’t quite match.
PC Gamer noted that while many expected Clair Obscur to dominate after its success at The Game Awards, Silksong’s victory shouldn’t surprise anyone who followed the game’s explosive launch. When Silksong released in September, it nearly crashed Steam’s servers with the sheer volume of players jumping in simultaneously. The game maintained massive concurrent player counts for weeks, creating a cultural moment where everyone seemed to be playing and dying to the same brutally difficult bosses.
The Complete Winners List
While Silksong grabbed headlines, ten other games took home awards across various categories. Here’s the full breakdown of winners:
Major Categories
– **Game of the Year**: Hollow Knight: Silksong
– **VR Game of the Year**: The Midnight Walk
– **Labor of Love**: Baldur’s Gate 3
– **Best Game on Steam Deck**: Hades 2
The Labor of Love award going to Baldur’s Gate 3 raised some eyebrows since the game only launched in 2023. Larian Studios themselves expressed surprise at the nomination, but players clearly appreciated the continued updates, quality-of-life improvements, and ongoing support the studio has provided post-launch. The award typically goes to older games that developers continue supporting years after release, making BG3 an unconventional but enthusiastic pick.
Hades 2 winning Best Game on Steam Deck felt inevitable. Supergiant Games’ roguelike sequel is perfectly suited for handheld play with quick runs, gorgeous stylized graphics that scale beautifully to smaller screens, and gameplay that works wonderfully in short bursts or extended sessions. We had already unofficially crowned it the best Deck game of 2025, so the official recognition just confirms what everyone already knew.
Gameplay and Design
– **Better With Friends**: Peak
– **Most Innovative Gameplay**: ARC Raiders
– **Best Game You Suck At**: Hollow Knight: Silksong
– **Outstanding Visual Style**: Silent Hill f
ARC Raiders winning Most Innovative Gameplay is the most controversial pick. While Embark Studios’ extraction shooter definitely broadened the genre’s appeal and introduced clever matchmaking systems, it beat out genuinely experimental games like Blue Prince and Mage Arena, which lets players cast spells using voice commands. Arc Raiders had the advantage of massive player counts, and voters likely rewarded it for making extraction shooters accessible rather than revolutionary game design.
Silent Hill f taking Outstanding Visual Style over Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and DOOM: The Dark Ages sparked debate. The psychological horror game is undeniably beautiful with its haunting Japanese aesthetic, but some felt ENA: Dream BBQ’s surreal visuals deserved more recognition for pure artistic uniqueness.
Story and Music
– **Outstanding Story-Rich Game**: Dispatch
– **Best Soundtrack**: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
– **Sit Back and Relax**: RV There Yet?
Dispatch winning Outstanding Story-Rich Game came as a surprise upset over Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which had strong narrative praise from critics. The indie thriller clearly connected with players who appreciated its branching storylines and consequence-driven choices.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t win Game of the Year, but it salvaged something by taking Best Soundtrack. Given that composer Bear McCreary created one of 2025’s most memorable scores, blending orchestral grandeur with haunting melodies, the recognition feels appropriate even if the overall GOTY snub stings for Sandfall Interactive.
The Steam vs Game Awards Divide
The stark contrast between Steam Awards and The Game Awards reveals an interesting split in gaming taste. At The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 absolutely dominated, winning Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Independent Game, Best RPG, Best Art Direction, Best Performance, Best Score & Music, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Narrative. That’s nine awards out of its nominations, a near-total sweep.
But on Steam, where players vote with both their ballots and their wallets, Silksong reigned supreme. The difference likely comes down to what each voting body values. Games journalists and industry professionals at The Game Awards appreciated Clair Obscur’s artistic vision, narrative ambition, and technical polish. PC gamers on Steam valued Silksong’s tight gameplay, incredible challenge, and the cultural phenomenon surrounding its long-awaited release.
Neither perspective is wrong. They just prioritize different things. The Game Awards tends to reward cinematic experiences and narrative innovation. Steam Awards lean toward gameplay feel, replayability, and the games people actually spent dozens or hundreds of hours playing. Clair Obscur is a masterfully crafted 30-hour experience. Silksong is a brutally addictive game people sink 100+ hours into trying to master.
Why It Matters
The Steam Awards matter because they reflect what PC gamers genuinely care about without industry politics or marketing budgets influencing outcomes. Valve’s community voting system is pure democracy, both a blessing and a curse. Popular games with massive player bases have obvious advantages. Smaller indie titles struggle to compete against blockbusters. But the results authentically represent what millions of Steam users collectively value.
Silksong’s victory validates Team Cherry’s years of silence and careful development. After Hollow Knight became an indie phenomenon in 2017, expectations for the sequel were impossibly high. Every delay increased pressure. Every new year without release fueled jokes and memes about whether Silksong even existed. When it finally dropped in September 2025, it needed to be exceptional not just good. And clearly, for Steam’s community, it delivered.
The awards also highlight which games maintained momentum beyond launch week. Many titles generate hype at release but fade quickly. The Steam Awards voting happens during the Winter Sale in late December, months after most 2025 games launched. Winners are games that stayed relevant, that people kept playing and talking about long after reviews dropped. Silksong, Hades 2, Peak, and Arc Raiders all maintained strong player engagement well past their honeymoon periods.
Frequently Asked Questions
When were the 2025 Steam Awards winners announced?
Valve announced the winners on January 3, 2026, at 10:00 AM PST. Voting took place during the Steam Winter Sale in late December 2025, with results revealed once the sale concluded.
What game won Steam Game of the Year 2025?
Hollow Knight: Silksong won Game of the Year at the 2025 Steam Awards. It also won Best Game You Suck At, making it the only game to claim multiple awards this year.
How does Steam Awards voting work?
The Steam Awards are community-voted. During the Winter Sale, Steam users can vote for their favorite games across 11 categories. You no longer need to own a game on Steam to vote for it, and games can be nominated in multiple categories.
Did Clair Obscur win any Steam Awards?
Yes, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Best Soundtrack at the Steam Awards. However, it lost Game of the Year to Hollow Knight: Silksong despite winning GOTY and eight other awards at The Game Awards in December 2025.
What awards did Hollow Knight Silksong win?
Hollow Knight: Silksong won two Steam Awards: Game of the Year and Best Game You Suck At. It was the only game to win multiple awards at the 2025 Steam Awards.
Why did Baldur’s Gate 3 win Labor of Love?
Despite launching in 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 won the Labor of Love award for developers who continue supporting their games post-launch. Larian Studios has provided extensive updates, improvements, and ongoing support, earning player appreciation even though it’s a relatively new release.
What is the Best Game You Suck At category?
Best Game You Suck At is a Steam Award category that celebrates games known for difficulty and demanding gameplay. It recognizes titles that challenge players to improve and master complex mechanics. Hollow Knight: Silksong won this category alongside Game of the Year.
Are Steam Awards different from The Game Awards?
Yes. The Game Awards uses a jury of journalists and industry professionals to select winners. Steam Awards are purely community-voted by Steam users. This often leads to different results based on what critics value versus what players who spent the most time with games appreciate.
The Popularity Contest Question
Critics of the Steam Awards often dismiss them as meaningless popularity contests. And they’re not entirely wrong. Games with massive player bases have inherent advantages. Marketing budgets and visibility matter. A brilliant indie game played by 50,000 people will lose to a decent AAA title played by 5 million. The voting system favors whatever’s trending rather than necessarily rewarding the objective best game.
But that criticism misses the point. Popularity itself is meaningful. If millions of people choose to spend their limited gaming time on a specific title, that says something important about its quality and appeal. Critics can argue whether Silksong is objectively better than Clair Obscur, but they can’t argue with the fact that Steam users collectively preferred it enough to crown it Game of the Year.
The Steam Awards will never carry the prestige of The Game Awards or other juried competitions. They won’t influence which games get greenlit or how developers approach design. But they serve a different purpose: reflecting the actual gaming ecosystem, showing which titles resonated most deeply with the people who matter most, the players themselves.
Hollow Knight: Silksong winning Game of the Year isn’t a statement about objective quality or critical consensus. It’s a statement about passion. About the millions of players who died hundreds of times learning boss patterns, who explored every corner of the map hunting secrets, who built communities around shared suffering and triumph. That kind of engagement can’t be manufactured or marketed. It emerges organically when a game connects with people on a fundamental level.
So congratulations to Team Cherry for making something special enough that Steam’s massive community rallied behind it. And congratulations to all the other winners who earned their players’ votes through quality, innovation, and the simple act of being games people wanted to celebrate. The 2025 Steam Awards might not be prestigious, but they’re honest. And in an industry often cynical about player engagement, honesty matters more than trophies.