The games that stood out in the first half of 2025 have been revealed. Metacritic, which compiles review scores and takes the pulse of the industry, evaluated new video games released between January 1 and June 30. This ranking, which only includes original productions, excluded remakes and remasters. 16 of the 20 games on the list managed to get at least 85 points out of 100.
The best games of 2025 are listed
At the top of the list is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with 93 points. The game became the highest-scoring game released in the first six months of the year. Blue Prince came in second with 92 points, while Split Fiction came in third with 91 points.
Kojima Productions’ sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, came in fourth with 90 points. Despelote, which entered fifth place with 89 points, was followed by The Talos Principle: Reawakened with the same score.
Monster Hunter Wilds and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the new game in the Monster Hunter series, entered the list in seventh and eighth places with 88 points each. Monster Train 2 followed them. The Roottrees are Dead, Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders and StarVaders were on the same step with 87 points. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo and Mario Kart World each received 86 points. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector also joined the list with the same score.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy was at the end of the list with 85 points; Two Point Museum, The Alters, Keep Driving and Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist found themselves in the last places with 84 points. On the other hand, the new The Legend of Zelda game released for Nintendo Switch 2 was excluded from the evaluation due to not being an original production.
The first half of 2025 has shown how effective productions developed with completely new ideas can be. According to Metacritic’s list, the number of games that managed to get at least 85 points in the first six months of the year has reached 16. The productions included in the list indicate that a high standard has been established in terms of diversity and quality in the gaming world.
