Hollow Knight: Silksong Sweeps The 2025 Steam Awards While Kingdom Come II Gets Dumped

The Steam community has spoken, and they have decided that a game about a tiny hornet is better than basically everything else released in 2025.

I spent most of my holiday break watching numbers tick up on a screen, and the final results of the 2025 Steam Awards are exactly as chaotic as you would expect from an uncurated public vote. Unlike the "ad-fest" of the traditional Game Awards where a bunch of suits decide who gets a gold statue, Steam lets the actual players decide who stays and who goes. It turns out that when you let the people speak, they choose to reward the developers who actually finished their games instead of the ones promising "realism" that nobody asked for.

Silksong Claims Its Birthright

Team Cherry dominated the entire evening. Hollow Knight: Silksong walked away with two trophies, including the coveted Game of the Year award and the "Best Game You Suck At" award. It beat out massive competitors like ARC Raiders and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, proving that even after years of waiting, the hype was not just a collective hallucination. I have died enough times in that game to agree with the "You Suck At" category, but winning GOTY over a big-budget epic like Kingdom Come is a direct slap in the face to Warhorse Studios.

The Perpetual Failure Of Warhorse

Speaking of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, it is getting a bit embarrassing at this point. After being snubbed at the main Game Awards, Warhorse's medieval sequel went home empty-handed from Steam as well. It was nominated for GOTY and the "Outstanding Story-Rich Game" category, but the community chose Dispatch instead. I almost feel bad for them, but when you are competing against indie darlings and actual fun gameplay, a history lesson does not always cut it.

Success For The Rest Of The Pack

While Silksong was hogging the spotlight, a few other titles managed to snag some glory. Embark's ARC Raiders took home the trophy for "Most Innovative Gameplay," which is fair considering how much it has disrupted the extraction shooter landscape lately. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which already swept the Game Awards nominations, managed to secure the Best Soundtrack win here. Even Baldur’s Gate 3 is still hanging on, winning the "Labor of Love" award despite being out for years. It seems the Steam community has a very long memory, or they just really love Larian’s constant patching.

The Rest of the Winners

• VR Game of the Year: The Midnight Walk

• Best Game on Steam Deck: Hades II

• Better With Friends: Peak

• Outstanding Visual Style: Silent Hill f

• Sit Back and Relax: RV There Yet?

The Reality Of The Public Vote

It is important to remember that the Steam Awards are a popularity contest, not necessarily a measure of quality. This is the same voting system that gave Starfield an innovation award as a joke a couple of years ago, so take everything with a grain of salt. However, seeing so many indie titles beat out the bloated AAA models is a refreshing change of pace for the industry. If developers want to win in 2026, they should probably focus on making games that people actually want to play instead of just chasing a higher polygon count.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

• PoP Sands of Time Remake Shadow Drop: Is January 16 The Date?

• PS5 Engineers Are Having a Literal Nightmare After the PS5 ROM Keys Leaked

• Monster Hunter Wilds Switch 2 Presets Leak: Here Is How The Beast Actually Runs

• Splitgate: Arena Reloaded Is Dead on Arrival: The Failed Rebrand

• My Winter Car Survival Guide: Managing All Player Attributes