As we’ve observed before, indie games, no matter how well reviewed they are, tend to get short shrift in the Game of the Year category at The Game Awards. An indie game has never won GOTY — unless you count Larian’s self-published, but lavishly made, Baldur’s Gate 3 (which the jury clearly didn’t, because it wasn’t nominated for the Best Independent Game award). In 2020, Hades was somewhat controversially beaten by The Last of Us Part 2.
More telling than the eventual winners, perhaps, is the scarcity of indie-game nominees for TGA’s big prize. In the awards’ history, there have only been five instances of games nominated in both Game of the Year and Best Independent Game: Inside, Celeste, Hades, Stray, and Balatro. And there have never been more than two such games in a single year.
That streak is, surely, going to be broken in 2025 by Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Hades 2 has just emerged from early access to wild acclaim from most quarters (if not ours). Its aggregate score rating on Metacritic and OpenCritic is settling around 93, very close to the original Hades. What it might lack in novelty value — it has been available in early access for over a year — it makes up for in the unanimity of its support among critics. The first game’s nomination gives it inarguable legitimacy in the category; it’s also possible that some jury members will be keen to correct the perceived snub suffered by that game in 2020.
Silksong has had a more mixed reception, but only slightly. Though its infamous difficulty might hold it back, its sensational launch after seven years of fan-made hype means it looms large in the conversation, and its review rating of 92 is hardly shabby. Developer Team Cherry has not announced sales numbers, but we do have analyst estimates claiming it’s sold 3.2 million copies on Steam alone. However the precise numbers shake out, it’s clear that Silksong is a massive hit. Its peak concurrents on Steam, at 587,150, dwarf those of all its likely (and even unlikely) GOTY rivals save Monster Hunter Wilds. (Odds-on favorite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 peaked at 145,000.) Popularity isn’t everything at The Game Awards, but, with regard to previous winners like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, it certainly helps.
These are currently two of the three best-reviewed games of the year, alongside Clair Obscur. They have pedigree and scale. There is no way that they’re not both being nominated. So it seems to be a dead cert that The Game Awards jury’s longstanding mental block when it comes to indie games will be broken down, and two nominees will get through.
That said, it’s important to bear in mind that this likely double-nomination will be the result of an extremely rare confluence, not to call it a fluke: that two massively anticipated indie mega-sequels should land not just in the same year but the same month. Given the popularity and acclaim heaped on their predecessors, these two games are arguably far more likely GOTY contenders than any of the previous five indie nominees. You could almost say that they’ve been grandfathered into the category.
It’s even questionable whether the jury truly regards these two as independent games, although their bonafides are impeccable: Both are self-published by relatively small development teams, and both adhere strongly to the popular perception of the indie ethos and aesthetic. It seems highly unlikely that they won’t both be nominated in the Best Independent Game category. Nevertheless, a true sign of courage from the jury, and of the adventurousness of its taste, would be a third GOTY nomination for a less famous but highly acclaimed game like Blue Prince. That’s probably too much to ask for.
All caveats aside, it’s notable and welcome that the days are numbered for The Game Awards’ inability to consider more than one indie game GOTY-worthy. Indeed, when you consider the bigger picture, which includes Clair Obscur as the runaway favorite — an original AA game from a first-time developer, and a decidedly non-mainstream, even “indie” publisher — the 2025 Game Awards could be a watershed moment. With AAA production at an all-time low, other developers and publishers are filling the gap, and gamers are finding their totems elsewhere. In this world, indie games can be blockbusters — even at The Game Awards.