Ever wondered what the internet's most discriminating gaming-tech fans think of the year's best? We're happy to share such lucrative data by presenting the Digital Foundry 2025 Community Awards, as voted on and announced by members of the DF Supporter Program this week.
The effort, as spearheaded by DF Patreon member A1an, included assistance from fellow Patreon members Zephyr, Trog and Joe along with support from additional beta testers to organise and tabulate the voting. In previous years, DF subscribers have voted on the year's best game and most anticipated title of the coming year, and in 2025, a third category has been added: best hardware.
During our early-December voting period, DF Supporter Program members could cast up to ten votes in the Best Game category - with the top vote receiving 10 points, the next vote receiving nine points and so on. The gaming ballots included drop-down lists to select titles reviewed by Digital Foundry this year along with the option to write in other choices, while the hardware list was limited to only devices on the drop-down lists to simplify voting for the year. This includes limitations like one bespoke GPU on the ballot per major vendor.
Eligibility is limited to games and devices released between December 1, 2024 and December 1, 2025, so if your favorite "2025" game is missing from this list, that's why. DLC, early access launches and simple ports of previously released games - ie many Switch 2 upgrade patches - are not eligible. And in the most-anticipated list, a game can be anticipated by DF Supporter Program members without having an announced release date - or, in one game's case, even having its existence formally announced.
DF Community Awards: 2025 Game of the Year
| Game title | Number of points | |
| 19. | Kirby Air Riders | 210 |
| 19. | Mafia: The Old Country | 210 |
| 18. | Hades 2 | 241 |
| 17. | Metal Gear Solid Delta | 244 |
| 16. | Avowed | 293 |
| 15. | ARC Raiders | 370 |
| 14. | Blue Prince | 390 |
| 13 | Battlefield 6 | 464 |
| 12. | Assassin's Creed Shadows | 469 |
| 11. | Silent Hill f | 501 |
| 10. | Split Fiction | 664 |
| 9. | Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 | 678 |
| 8. | Mario Kart World | 753 |
| 7. | Hollow Knight: Silksong | 756 |
| 6. | Ghost of Yōtei | 1,055 |
| 5. | 1,098 | |
| 4. | Doom: The Dark Ages | 1,113 |
| 3. | 1,121 | |
| 2. | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | 1,521 |
| 1. | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | 2,248 |
DF Community Awards: 2025 Hardware of the Year
|
Hardware name |
Number of points | |
| 8. | ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X | 6 |
| 7. | Apple M5 Macbook Pro | 11 |
| 6. | AMD Ryzen 9 AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) | 16 |
| 5. | AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D | 30 |
| 4. | Analogue 3D | 33 |
| 3. | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | 37 |
| 2. | Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 | 41 |
| 1. | Nintendo Switch 2 | 174 |
DF Community Awards: Most Anticipated Game of 2026
|
Game name |
Number of points | |
| 9. | Onimusha: Way of the Sword | 9 |
| 9. | Half-Life 3 | 9 |
| 8. | Pragmata | 10 |
| 7. | Fable | 12 |
| 6. | Forza Horizon 6 | 13 |
| 5. | Saros | 22 |
| 3. | Marvel's Wolverine | 39 |
| 3. | Resident Evil Requiem | 39 |
| 2. | 007 First Light | 41 |
| 1. | Grand Theft Auto 6 | 124 |
Comments 7
Wow, it looks like people really like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle! I had no idea that it's so popular.
I missed the vote, but I mostly agree with these results.
I'm in a weird spot where I can't be excited for GTA 6 yet. I'm sure I'll get there, but it just doesn't feel real, so I'm not particularly enthused about it yet.
@Fendera I was suprised to see that there as well so high up!
Pretty solid year for gaming this one.
I call shenanigans on the "Hardware of the Year" having the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 as an entry. It may still be the most powerful GPU on the consumer market right now, but it's not a new 2025 product.
...
Wait. I take it back. It was just announced in January and released at the end of January?!?! Wow, what happened to 2025? Well, I still prefer my more reasonable and plenty powerful RX 9070 XT. I do not regret selling my RTX 4080 to a friend to get my the cash for the 9070 XT at all, especially with the FSR 4/Upscaling enhancements we've seen this year. It's been an overall great experience on my main PC, running dual-boot Win11 and Bazzite (and leaning more and more Bazzite whenever possible!)
If I had a second hardware vote, it would have been the Analogue 3D, but it's great to see how positively the Switch 2 is being received by normal people. Too many reviewers complain that the Switch 2 isn't exciting or good enough, but the people say otherwise.
The most anticipated selection is also pretty funny. There's GTA6 and some scrubs (by comparison).
I'm getting old, if you had told me back in the day that somewhere in the future Half Life 3 would be far less anticipated than Fable or a Resident Evil game, I'd have laughed in your face.
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