My Hollow Knight: Silksong Victory Lap & The 2025 Steam Awards Rundown
Well, well, well, look who finally got the crown after all those years of waiting! As a hardcore gamer who practically lives on Steam, watching the 2025 Steam Awards unfold was like the world's most stressful sports final, but for my backlog. The community has spoken, and the trophy for Game of the Year has landed squarely in the delicate, needle-wielding hands of Hollow Knight: Silksong. I mean, come on, after the legendary wait, seeing Hornet claim the top spot over heavy hitters like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 felt like a personal vindication for every hour I spent refreshing Team Cherry's blog.
Let's break down this glorious, community-driven chaos, shall we? The voting process was a two-stage marathon. First, we all nominated our favorites in late November, shouting into the Steam void. Then, the real battle began during the Winter Sale from December 18th to January 3rd. Eleven categories, each with five nominees—some games were so good they popped up in multiple slots, trying to collect awards like I collect unfinished games in my library.
The final lineup for the big one, Game of the Year, was a murderer's row of 2025's finest:
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🏆 Hollow Knight: Silksong (The Victor!)
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⚔️ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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🚀 Dispatch
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🔫 ARC Raiders
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🏰 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
And Silksong didn't stop there! Oh no. It also snagged the 'Best Game You Suck At' award. This is the community's wonderfully sarcastic way of saying, "This game will destroy you, and you'll love every second of it." Fitting, right? Mastering Hornet's acrobatics made me feel like a god one minute and a complete fool the next. Perfection.
But hey, let's not forget the other champions who made 2025 an incredible year to be a PC gamer. Here’s a quick table of some key winners that had me celebrating (or sobbing into my keyboard):
| Award Category | Winner | Why It Makes Sense (From My Couch) |
|---|---|---|
| Best Soundtrack | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | A gorgeous, emotional score that made even my failed parries feel epic. A deserving consolation prize! |
| Best on Steam Deck | Hades 2 | Supergiant did it again. Perfect for short, intense runs on the go. My battery has never died so gloriously. |
| Labor of Love | Baldur's Gate 3 | Larian is still updating this masterpiece in 2026. That's commitment. My Tiefling bard salutes you. |
| Most Innovative Gameplay | ARC Raiders | This shooter's mechanics felt fresh. It averaged over 400k players at launch—they're onto something. |
| Better With Friends | PEAK | Pure, unadulterated multiplayer chaos. My friendships are stronger (and more toxic) because of it. |
| Sit Back and Relax | RV There Yet? | The perfect antidote to getting my butt kicked in Silksong. Just driving an RV, man. So chill. |
Now, the best news for us Silksong devotees? The party isn't over. Team Cherry announced back in December that 2026 will bring the 'Sea of Sorrow' expansion, and it's FREE. New areas, new weapons for Hornet, new enemies to brutally defeat me... all with a watery theme. I'm already terrified and excited. My body (and my reflexes) are ready.
On the other side, the team at Sandfall Interactive showed pure class. After Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 missed the top prize, they dropped a free 'Thank You Update' with brutal new endgame challenges. Talk about supporting your players! It added fights that truly test your parrying skills—I've been grinding them, and let's just say my controller has learned to fear me.
Reflecting on the 2025 Steam Awards as a whole, a few things are crystal clear:
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Indie Power is Real. From Silksong to Hades 2 to PEAK, smaller studios dominated the conversation and the awards.
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Live Service Done Right Works. Games like Baldur's Gate 3, ARC Raiders, and No Man's Sky prove that supporting a game for years pays off in player love and awards like 'Labor of Love'.
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The Community Knows Best. These awards aren't decided by a panel; they're decided by us, the players who log the hours. It makes each win feel earned.
So, here we are in 2026. I've got my Sea of Sorrow hype train ticket, I'm still trying to perfect my Expedition 33 parry, and my Steam library is groaning under the weight of these amazing games. The 2025 Steam Awards were a fantastic snapshot of a year where patience was rewarded (Silksong!), innovation thrived, and developers showed incredible love for their communities. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a kingdom to deliver and some gods to escape from. Game on! 🎮✨