The 50 best games of 2025

The industry-wide layoffs that started in 2023 showed no sign of slowing down. The stakes for new releases are higher than ever, as swollen budgets and development cycles demand recouped costs at launch. Planned games that showed a lot of promise were canned, while the studios working on them were shuttered. All of this went down amid the looming shadow of continued industry consolidation, which doesn’t spell doom by definition but historically has led to even more widespread layoffs, more canceled projects, and more studio closures.