"Speechless": Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the first game from a studio founded by ex-Ubisoft devs, is officially the best-rated game of 2025

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Sandfall Interactive's debut RPG beats Blue Prince, Split Fiction, and more

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
(Image credit: Sandfall Interactive)

Our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review is overflowing with praise for developer Sandfall Interactive's turn-based RPG, and it seems that so is everyone else. The scores have settled, Expedition 33 is now the best-rated game on Metacritic and Opencritic for 2025, and nobody is more surprised than the developers themselves.

"Speechless," Sandfall said of the news on Twitter. "So many incredible games have been released this year. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

François Meurisse of publisher Kepler Interactive, sharing a screenshot of 2025's review rankings, added: "what's happening are you crazy".

Opencritic, meanwhile, tabulates scores slightly differently (Blue Prince is ranked fourth at an 89 over there) and puts Expedition 33 a full point ahead of Split Fiction and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which are tied for second place according to its data.

This milestone was paired with the news that Expedition 33 has already sold 500,000 copies. It's currently the third-best-selling game on Steam, where it has over 5,000 94% positive reviews after one day, and is still enjoying the throne of Steam's front page banner. At its current pace, we can reasonably estimate that it's on track to sell a few million copies.

By every metric imaginable, Expedition 33 is a massive success. Developed by a team of just over 30 staff, led by two co-founding ex-Ubisoft developers likely more accustomed to different genres and workflows – the Ubisoft game closest to Expedition 33 is probably Child of Light, and it's an anomaly in the studio's stable – it also joins Blue Prince as one of the most impressive debuts of the year.

(Update - May 8: This article previously incorrectly said that Sandfall Interactive is largely comprised of ex-Ubisoft staff. It was founded by Ubisoft alumni, but many staff are new, junior developers.)

9 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tips to take on the Paintress.

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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