Name: Best PlayStation games of 2025
Uploaded: 2025-12-17T20:22:04.440Z
Duration: 9 min 24 s
Description: Superheroes, ronin, insect warriors, and postal service workers. Whatever your fantasy this year, PlayStation could deliver it. But which PS5 game was the best?

Superheroes, ronin, insect warriors, and postal service workers. Whatever your fantasy this year, PlayStation could deliver it. But which PS5 game was the best?

IGN has announced its picks for the top five PlayStation 5 games released in 2025, expanding its criteria to include all games available on the platform, not just Sony exclusives. Honourable mentions include Split Fiction, Blueprints, Ball Pit, Battlefield 6, Ark Raiders, Atomfall, and Silent Hill F, each recognized for their unique gameplay and narrative contributions.

The top five games highlighted are Hollow Knight Silksong, Dispatch, Death Stranding 2 On The Beach, Ghost of Yotei, and the winner, Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Expedition 33 was praised for its blend of classic and modern RPG mechanics, cinematic storytelling, and memorable cast, earning it IGN's award for Best PlayStation Game of 2025.

Best PlayStation games of 2025

So, let's get to work. Superheroes, Ronin, insect warriors and postal service workers. Whatever your fantasy this year, PlayStation could deliver it. But which PS5 game was the best? We at IGN have voted and picked out what we think are the 5 most worthy of recognition from across 2025, naming one of them the very best PlayStation game of the year, as well as shouting out a few honourable mentions that were very close to making the cut. In an era when console exclusives are a dying breed, as Sony's competitor Microsoft has shown us more than ever over the past few months, we've made the decision this year to branch out and open up the criteria for what can win our platform-specific awards. These aren't the top 5 Sony exclusives, but the top 5 games that were released on PS5 in 2025 full stop. So without further ado, let's get on with it and crown the best PlayStation game of 2025 before we all die of old age. First up we have some honourable mentions. One of the best games from early in the year was Hazelight's Split Fiction, the endlessly inventive co-op action platformer that narrowly missed out on a top 5 spot, also just missing out are a pair of 2025's breakout indie hits, Blueprints and Ball Pit. These two couldn't be more different from each other though, with the former brain-bending mansion full of puzzles a much calmer affair than the brick-breaking chaos of the latter. And then there's two big shooters that came along at the end of the year. Battlefield 6's multiplayer has seen it return to the glorious, huge-scale carnage that fans wanted, and Ark Raiders has proven a massive success thanks to its just-one-more extraction nature. And rounding out our honourable mentions are a pair of games that like to do things a bit differently when it comes to narrative, Atomfall and Silent Hill F. Both create uneasy worlds in their own ways, and we admire them for their freeform and steadily-revealing approaches to storytelling respectively. It finally happened. 2025 was the year that Hollow Knight Silksong saw the light of day, and what a relief that we not only got to play it, but it was also extremely good. Team Cherry's much-anticipated sequel may be a whole lot more punishing than the original, but it is still home to that same magic, which can be found all over its sprawling, bug-sized world full of secret nooks and crannies. The platforming pathways to get to those places are tight and challenging, with new lead Hornet showing off a fresh batch of skills stemming from her fundamentally game-changing diagonal darts. But it's in the combat where she really comes into her own, promoting a more aggressive style of play which lets you take the fight to Silksong's beastry of bosses. These tough creatures of all shapes and sizes with nasty tricks up their sleeves may have presented some of 2025's biggest roadblocks, but persevere and the glory waiting behind them leads to one of the year's greatest games. Superhero drama Dispatch manages to recapture the magic of those telltale-esque episodic visual novels that we all fell in love with a decade or so ago. Following the story of Robert Robertson, a hero who is nothing without his now-destroyed mech suit, it's a heartwarming tale of redemption that isn't without its fair share of bite too. Managing your many relationships, both personal and professional, as they intertangle at Robbie's place of work, the Superhero Dispatch Network, is key, as is making sure your team of down-and-out supervillains successfully try their hand at crime-stopping. This half of the game adds a real-time sim management wrinkle to each chapter, as you boost the skills of your squad and send them out on missions to match their skillset. From the hothead Flombey to the internet's new favourite demon mummy Malevola, you're in command of a vibrant and varied bunch that each offer a fun dynamic to each and every scene they're in. But it's outside of the SDN office monitor that Dispatch really comes to life, as Robertson's life crumbles around him, and your best attempts at rebuilding it are hidden behind dialogue choices. What comes of its cast of characters, headlined by Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul as Robbie and with Laura Bailey's Invisigal stealing most scenes, is up to you. Something that is guaranteed, though, is a great time. In many ways, Death Stranding 2 On The Beach finally fulfilled the promise of its flawed predecessor. Creator Hideo Kojima's second slice of post-apocalypse delivery adventures dialed up the action, echoing his past Metal Gear Solid successes while still maintaining that singular, lonely vision of a disconnected world. Taking Sam Porter Bridges to Australia, On The Beach hands you a much-expanded range of combat options, from silent sniper rifles to homing missile mechanical dogs, and permits you to go about completing as many, many postal orders however you'd like. This freedom is not just a combat feature, but is reflected in how you go about navigating each of these treacherous delivery routes too, with new ways to travel over stormy deserts and raging rivers, including huge looming monorail systems and bonkers coffin hoverboards. With guns and violence, the whole damn world could be yours. Same as it ever was. But the weirdness is just one aspect of Death Stranding, and there's no shortage of it this time around thanks to Troy Baker's excellent return as villain Higgs, as its themes of love and loss ultimately dominate, no matter how large the spectacle on screen. Lea Seydoux is subtly brilliant as Fragile, and drives the story from start to finish as the connections between herself, Sam and baby Lou are steadily revealed. It's a fantastic example of a vision come to life, and easily one of the best PlayStation games to have come out in 2025. The Swordsmith's Daughter. My name is Ah Tzu. Following up on 2020's Ghost of Tsushima was always going to be a challenge, but developer Sucker Punch rose to it impressively well with Ghost of Yotei. This sword-slashing epic borrows everything that we loved from its predecessor, but improves on almost all of it in a multitude of fun little ways. The pulsating combat opens up further, with new weapons and skills introduced to deepen its familiar dodge, block, parry and swing system. Among those additions is the highly satisfying disarming mechanic that has your protagonist Ah Tzu send her enemy's blades flying from their grasp. But it's this wandering Ronin story that drives Yotei's momentum, turning a simple tale of revenge into something much more beautiful as you explore each corner of its historical Japanese map, and soak in both the visual and audio majesty on show. Surprise! Claire Obscure Expedition 33 has won another award. It really is that good though, isn't it? Sandfall Interactive's ode to Final Fantasy of years gone by takes that age-old formula and thrusts it firmly into 2025, with lashings of style, soaring music and a battle system that melds classic turn-based RPG mechanics with exciting real-time elements, making each and every encounter a thrill. All of that style would be nothing without substance though, and while its combat excites from moment to moment, it's Claire Obscure's poignant story and layered cast of characters that make it live long in the memory. Jennifer English is pitch-perfect as Miel at the heart of Expedition 33's plot, with Ben Starr's Verso a wonderful foil as its twisted themes of grief and what it is to love are untangled. All played out in front of a ticking backdrop of the gommage, a yearly tolling doomsday clock for anyone of a certain age, it's wonderfully cinematic, making it fit right in alongside many of Sony's first-party blockbuster offerings. How did you… how did you survive the gommage? Taking inspiration from the original PlayStation's library of Japanese RPGs and bringing those ideas into the future, thanks to an all-timer video game story, supported by a combat system as satisfying as it is nuanced, Claire Obscure Expedition 33 is the clear winner of our award for Best PlayStation Game of 2025. Aim for the B33. Woo! I'll meet you outside! What was your favourite PS5 game of 2025? Let us know in the comments! And for more of our awards, make sure to keep it locked to IGN, where you can see our picks for Best Xbox and Nintendo Games of the Year. Thanks for watching!

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