2025 in video games

In the video game industry, 2025 saw large-scale layoffs occurring since 2022, contracting from the large growth that had happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other hardware, Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch 2 console, though along with Sony Interactive Entertainment and Microsoft, had to adjust the pricing on their hardware within the United States and Canada as a result of tariffs placed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Additional costs to hardware came about from the growth of the AI bubble, with memory chips being directed to commercial data center growth over consumer sales.

2025 also saw smaller companies and individual developers achieve outsize success compared to larger AAA studios with games developed by smaller teams such as ' and ' achieving critical acclaim and commercial success while Schedule I early access release generated $60–125 million in gross revenue within just months of release, and ' sold over 7 million copies.

Major developers faced financial difficulties and continued layoffs, leading to Ubisoft striking a deal with Tencent and Electronic Arts being bought out by a group of private equity firms led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. ' negative reception saw Activision announce a change to its release schedule for upcoming Call of Duty games.

Top-rated games

Critically acclaimed games

The following table lists the top-rated games released in 2025 based on Metacritic, which generally considers expansions as separate entities. The original versions of these games were released in 2025.

Major awards

Major events

Notable deaths

• January 9 – Alan Emrich, 65, video game writer who coined the term 4X.
• January 12 – Robert Machray, 79, actor with voice roles in The Dark Eye and '.
• January 15 – David Lynch, 78, surrealist filmmaker whose work influenced numerous video games, including the Alan Wake series, ', Silent Hill 2, the Persona series, Disco Elysium, and Deadly Premonition.
• January 24 – Tetsuhisa Seko, 54, president of Nippon Ichi Software.
• January 30 – Wayne June, voice actor who was announcer for Dota 2 and narrator of Darkest Dungeon.
• February 3 – Stéphane Picq, 59, composer who scored Dune, MegaRace, Lost Eden, ', and Riverworld.
• February 10 – Peter Tuiasosopo, 61, actor who played E. Honda in 1994's Street Fighter.
• February 14 – William Roberts, 80, voice actor who voiced Vesemir in The Witcher series and Dromarch in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
• February 16 – Viktor Antonov, 52, art director of Half-Life 2 and Dishonored.
• February 21 – Peter Jason, 80, actor with voice roles in Fallout 2 and Gears of War.
• March 11 – Dave Mallow, 76, voice actor who voiced Akuma in the Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom series.
• March 12
• Thomas Lee, 59, former EA employee who worked on games such as Final Fantasy IX, Parasite Eve, and Wing Commander III.
• Takashi Inagaki, 87, voice actor who voiced Yen Sid in the Kingdom Hearts series, Epic Mickey, and '.
• March 25 – Abdulaziz "HAX$" Al-Yami, 30, pro Super Smash Bros. Melee player.
• April 3 – Narayana "River Boy" Johnson, audio director and composer for Cult of the Lamb.
• April 5 – Bill Petras, art director for Blizzard Entertainment on several games, including StarCraft, World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
• May 30 – Renée Victor, 86, actress who voiced female Argonians in '.
• June 2 – Tim LeTourneau, developer with Maxis including producer on The Sims.
• June 9 – Pik-Sen Lim, 80, Chinese-born actress, including the voice of the narrator in the Dark Souls series.
• July 3 – Michael Madsen, 67, film actor with various voice roles in video games including Grand Theft Auto III, Driver 3, Narc and Dishonored.
• July 8 – James Carter Cathcart, 71, voice actor who portrayed Gary Oak, James, Meowth and Professor Oak in Pokémon, and other appearances in ', Sonic X, and Shadow the Hedgehog.
• July 22 – Julian LeFay, 59, programmer from Bethesda Softworks considered the "father of the Elder Scrolls" for his work on ' and '.
• July 24 – Hulk Hogan, 71, pro wrestler who appeared in several WWE, WCW, and TNA video games including serving as the cover athlete of MicroLeague Wrestling, WWF WrestleMania, among other titles.
• August 17 – Terence Stamp, 87, actor who appeared in ', ', Halo 3 and '.
• September 26 – Andrew Dice, co-founder of Carpe Fulgur.
• October 2 – Kazuki Motoyama, 69, artist and writer of the Mario manga published by Kodansha in Comic BomBom.
• October 16 – Tomonobu Itagaki, 58, game designer, creator of Dead or Alive series and Ninja Gaiden series.
• November 17 – Rebecca Heineman, 62, co-founder of Interplay Entertainment and video game developer for several titles.
• November 21 – Lamarr Wilson, 48, YouTuber and technology reporter, as well as gaming-industry event host.
• November 23 – Udo Kier, 81, horror actor with multiple video game roles including Yuri from '.
• November 29 – Tomomichi Nishimura, 79, Japanese voice actor who voiced Akuma and M. Bison in the Street Fighter series.
• December 1 – Nick Thorpe, 38, the Features Editor and primary writer for long-running British gaming magazine Retro Gamer.
• December 4 – Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, 75, actor who portrayed Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat and Heihachi Mishima in the Tekken films.
• December 10
• Jeff Garcia, 50, actor and comedian who voiced Sheen Estevez in the Jimmy Neutron franchise.
• Jim Ward, 66, voice actor who voiced Captain Qwark in the Ratchet & Clank series, Jack Krauser in Resident Evil 4 and Doktor in '.
• December 21 - Vince Zampella, 55, co-founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment.
• December 25 - David M. Rosen, 95, co-founder of Sega and founding father of the Japan arcade scene.