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Welcome to Year in Review: The Best of 2025, our retrospective on all the unforgettable games, movies, TV, hardware, and comics released during the last 12 months. Our experts here at GamesRadar+ have come together to create a comprehensive collection of coverage around games that moved us to movies that challenged us to gear that impressed us – and more. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year.
And what a year it's been! From the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 to the RPG renaissance to the heartwarming hope of superheroes, it truly feels like it never once slowed down – and we're not starting now. We've been busy the past several weeks (and sometimes months) conducting interviews, putting together lists, voting, and generally preparing for a year-end celebration that is worthy of all the hard work throughout 2025 from the creative industries we cover.
Throughout December, we’re looking back at the very best of 2025, so be sure to check in across the month for new lists, interviews, features, and retrospectives as we guide you through all of the most interesting and captivating releases that the past year has had to offer with updates constantly – so be sure to check back in daily!
Best of 2025: Games
GamesRadar+ GOTY: The 25 Best Games of 2025: The best games of 2025 are a testament to the power of interactive entertainment.
"The real reward in our heart is the emotional response": As Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues its GOTY domination, the devs and actors are still reeling from its success.
From Fortnite to Helldivers 2, the best ongoing games of 2025 have kept themselves fresh.
"We are hard to beat": 9 months since Assassin's Creed Shadows, its associate director looks back on what makes this RPG the best in series history.
From Skate to 2XKO, why wait when you can already play the best early access games of 2025.
"Just making a cozy game isn't enough to heal a person": Why Wanderstop and its blend of introspection and tea-making has stayed with me throughout 2025.
"Everything that we are today as an adult – it all comes from who we were as teenagers": Lost Records: Bloom & Rage understands the magic of childhood.
"2025 was the year I fell back in love with PC gaming": This despite censorship woes and the terrifying price of RAM.
"I don't know if we're there yet, but I'd love to get there": Obsidian hopes to stand alongside CD Projekt and Larian by making "best-in-class" reactive RPGs, says The Outer Worlds 2 director.
"The player is in communion with a human designer": For the creators of Baby Steps, there's no room or reason to surrender creativity to AI.
From Indiana Jones to Still Wakes the Deep, the best expansions of 2025 gave us new reasons to return to our favorites.
"We've learned to love and trust the process": How Hades 2 built on Supergiant's Early Access legacy to deliver the best roguelike of 2025.
From Despelote to Ooo, the best games under 2 hours of 2025 are truly timely.
"RPGs can be divisive": Obsidian chats all things Avowed – how it overcame the Skyrim comparisons, why there's no Baldur's Gate 3-style romance, and what's next for the 2025 gem.
From Metal Gear Solid Delta to Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, these are the best remakes of 2025 that revived the classics for a new generation.
"I wish I had the Katamari Damacy IP": To a T was meant to counter the "downer" vibes of 2019 America, but Keita Takahashi says it "didn't sell well" and fears it "just wasn't a good fit."
From Citizen Sleeper 2 to Hollow Knight: Silksong, the best sequels of 2025 expanded upon their predecessors.
"We had the strength to say, 'Yes, that's what we want'": Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 developers made my favorite RPG of 2025 by trusting their original vision.
Silent Hill f writer knows you don't really want to see "a happily ever after," and the game's horrific portrayal of young womanhood makes it my GOTY.
From Avowed to Hades 2, the best RPGs of 2025 are the cream of the role-playing crop.
Rematch "was a very strong learning curve" for the Sifu devs, but Sloclap is still working to find the back of the net.
As Xbox refuses to play the console wars game in 2025, it's traded exclusivity for a multi-platform future.
Blue Prince is a "true hybrid" of video and boardgame genius – the fact that it's an award-winning roguelike was never part of the plan: "Things spiraled way out of control."
From College Football 26 to WWE 2K25 via Rematch, the best sports games of 2025 kept us playing.
Skin Deep is a Die Hard-inspired stealth game where you're not a "walking pile of guns that just shoots down everything, you are this fragile bag of meat."
From Battlefield 6 to Peak, these are the best multiplayer games of 2025 to play with friends today.
We interviewed Split Fiction's COO on standing out "in a year when every third week, the greatest thing comes out."
Here's why Death Stranding 2 is the purest expression of "a Hideo Kojima game" – "these games have always been about the play."
From Assassins Creed Shadows to Pokemon Legends: Z-A, here are the best open world games of 2025 that will take you to new heights.
"Monster Hunter Wilds is on my GOTY list for a reason, but after a messy year I just want Capcom to wipe the slate clean with Master Rank DLC."
From Minecraft to The Last of Us Season 2, the best gaming adaptations of 2025 weren't lacking in variety.
Ghost of Yotei was my first PS5 Platinum trophy not only in 2025, but ever... and the only game I truly lost myself in this year.
5 games that defined the first year of the Nintendo Switch 2.
We interview Team Ninja and PlatinumGames to discover how Ninja Gaiden 4 is revitalizing an arcade classic.
From Routine to Silent Hill f, the best horror games of 2025 were heart-pounding terrors that left me sweating with glee.
After 44 years as second banana, Donkey Kong Bananza makes Nintendo's first star a mascot to rival Mario and Link in the Switch 2 era.
From Metal Gear Solid Delta to Silksong, the best action-adventure games of 2025 are a rollicking good time.
The Hundred Line's "Spiderverse"-inspired 100 endings might only continue to grow: "You'll end up with quite a Frankenstein's monster of a game in the end – but I absolutely have the ambition to make that."
From Borderlands 4 to Battlefield 6, the best FPS games of 2025 are high-octane, frenetic experiences.
From Dispatch to Spilled and Peak, covering indie games every week in 2025 was packed full of welcome surprises.
From creepy folklore to a human with half a head, the best hidden gems of 2025 are worth your attention.
PlayStation Year in Review: 2025 is the year PS5 came into its own with fantastic exclusives, but is it too little too late?
"Stay true to your gut": Indiana Jones and the Great Circle dev on making a successful adventure for such an iconic hero.
Vampire games were neglected in 2025, but their shunning only proves my point: this was the year of the underdog bloodsucker.
Nintendo Year in Review: Nintendo's 2025 has been all about the hardware, but 2026 is going to be its year for games.
How Peak put friendslop on the map in 2025 in a totally unexpected way: "We were ready to hit the launch button and go into vacation mode"
Elden Ring Nightreign was a bold-yet-flawed Soulslike experiment, but I think it could shape the entire industry's future.
Best of 2025: Movies
The 25 Best Movies of 2025: The results are in, and here are the GamesRadar+ picks for the very best movies of the year.
Superman captured my heart as the 2025 movie of the year with its hopeful rejection of cynicism.
Why Hollywood can't get enough of adapting the works of Stephen King: With six movie and TV adaptations released in 2025 alone, Stephen King is a Hollywood obsession.
My favorite character of the year was One Battle After Another's beer-drinking karate instructor: Benicio del Toro's Sensei Sergio was a standout character in one of the year's best movies.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle features cinema's best fight of the year, but only because it swaps out sword strikes for gut punches.
2025 was anime's biggest year yet – and may have provided the blueprint for a decade of domination.
Weapons' Aunt Gladys is an instant horror icon – and 2025's best movie villain.
Many have tried to dethrone it, but Sinners' time-travelling juke joint scene is still 2025's best set-piece.
The Long Walk is one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time – and the saddest movie of 2025.
The year of Minecraft: How Jack Black's block-tastic video game adaptation started the most chaotic cinema trend of 2025.
Golden is the KPop Demon Hunters chart topper, but What It Sounds Like is the real anthem to celebrate.
28 Years Later's Alfie Williams is 2025's newcomer of the year, as the star talks about the "life-changing" breakout role.
Best of 2025: TV
The 25 Best TV Shows of 2025: From long-running series celebrating landmark final seasons, to new players making their mark on the prestige TV landscape, there was no shortage of shows to lose yourself in across the year.
"If I had my choice, I would wish that the show was a lot less relevant": Andor mastermind Tony Gilroy discusses the Star Wars show's triumphant final season and profound real-world relevance.
The best twist of the year was the Last of Us season 2 death half the audience saw coming: Before the first season of The Last of Us on HBO had even come to a close, the dread started to build.
The best line delivery of 2025 can be found in Squid Game season 3, which only needed two words to land the most moving line of dialogue of the year.
Peacemaker season 2 delivered the best joke of 2025 — and solidified Vigilante as DC’s answer to Deadpool.
It: Welcome to Derry features the scariest scene of the year, and Pennywise is only part of the horrors.
Why we were so obsessed with survival game stories this year, from Squid Game season 3 to The Hunger Games.
From Andor's shocking massacre to Pluribus's strange invasion, these are the best TV episodes of 2025.
Best of 2025: Hardware
It's here! GamesRadar+'s Hardware Awards 2025 takes you through the biggest hitters the tech world has seen this year, from the Switch 2 to the top GPUs, SSDs, and beyond.
Best of 2025: Comics
The 25 Best Comics of 2025: From Chainsaw Man to Captain America, comics have rarely been better than they have this year.
Absolute Martian Manhunter isn't just the best superhero comic of 2025 – it pushes into the wild spaces of the form itself.
Analyzing the state of Marvel Comics in 2025: If Marvel wants to stay the House of Ideas, it needs to come up with some new ones.
2025 was a triumphant year for DC Comics – can it sustain its momentum in an uncertain future?
