Hollow Knight: Silksong Crowned Game of the Year at Steam Awards 2025: A Community Victory

When Hollow Knight: Silksong was passed over for the top prize at The Game Awards, the gaming community didn’t just lament—it prepared its own verdict. That verdict arrived in January 2026, as Team Cherry's long-awaited sequel achieved a landmark victory at the player-driven Steam Awards for 2025, securing the coveted Game of the Year award. This win represents more than just another trophy; it is the culmination of years of fervent community anticipation, finally validated through a pure, player-driven vote. The ceremony, which honored the best titles of 2025, was further defined by a significant rule change and a winners’ circle that painted a comprehensive portrait of a year celebrating challenge, longevity, and artistic innovation in PC gaming.

Silksong's Double Victory: From Anticipation to Acclaim

Hollow Knight: Silksong didn’t just win; it dominated. The game captured two of the platform’s most prestigious accolades: Game of the Year and Best Game You Suck At. This dual victory speaks volumes about its reception. Officially released on September 4, 2025, Silksong finally delivered on years of towering expectations, translating hype into masterful gameplay.

The Game of the Year win is particularly poignant given its context. Just weeks prior, at The Game Awards in December 2024, Silksong had won "Best Action-Adventure Game" but was passed over for the overall top prize. Its triumph on Steam, therefore, feels like a community correction—a direct affirmation from the players who had waited for it. Furthermore, winning the "Best Game You Suck At" category is a badge of honor in the Steam community. It signifies that players not only adored the game’s beautiful, haunting world but also embraced its punishing, skill-based combat. This dual award confirms Silksong as both an artistic achievement and a core, challenging gameplay experience that the PC master race proudly endorses.

The People's Choice: How the 2025 Steam Awards Worked

The Steam Awards are a unique institution, governed entirely by the community. The process involves a two-round vote: an initial nomination phase where users select games for each category, followed by a final vote between the top five nominees in each. The results announced on January 3, 2026, were the product of this direct democratic process for the year 2025.

However, the 2025 awards featured a crucial rule change: for the first time, voters could cast ballots for games they did not own in their Steam library. This potentially broadened the influence of cultural hype and word-of-mouth, allowing players to champion highly anticipated titles like Silksong even before purchase. Following the announcement, Valve reinforced the celebratory nature of the awards by granting all winning games a spotlight discount in the ongoing Steam Winter Sale, allowing the community to immediately engage with the honored titles.

The Best of the Rest: A Showcase of 2025's Standout Games

While Silksong took the top honors, the full list of winners for the Steam Awards 2025 reveals a diverse and healthy ecosystem of PC gaming excellence.

• Ongoing Excellence: Proving that a game’s journey doesn’t end at launch, Baldur’s Gate 3 won the Labor of Love award. Despite its 2023 release, Larian Studios’ continued major updates and support throughout 2025 convinced the community it remained a deserving recipient.
• Technical & Artistic Praise: Hades 2 secured Best Game on Steam Deck, highlighting Supergiant Games’ flawless optimization for portable play. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earned Best Soundtrack, while Silent Hill f was recognized for its Outstanding Visual Style, showing player appreciation for distinct audio-visual artistry.
• Gameplay Innovation & Narrative: The Most Innovative Gameplay award went to ARC Raiders, suggesting its unique take on the looter-shooter resonated. Meanwhile, Dispatch was celebrated as the Outstanding Story-Rich Game of the year.
• Social & VR Experiences: The awards also honored communal play, with Peak winning Better With Friends. In the virtual reality space, The Midnight Walk was crowned VR Game of the Year.

Notably, Silksong’s competitors for Game of the Year—ARC Raiders, Dispatch, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2—all found recognition in other categories, underscoring the strength of 2025’s releases.

Analysis & Implications: What the Winners Tell Us

The winners’ list from the 2025 Steam Awards functions as a cultural snapshot. It reveals a community that values sustained support for games, as seen with Baldur’s Gate 3, and one that passionately rewards the fulfillment of a long-held promise, as with Silksong. The diversity is striking, spanning massive AAA-supported RPGs, breakout indie sequels, and bold new IPs across genres.

The new voting rule, allowing votes for unowned games, likely played a fascinating role. It potentially amplified the voice of the "hype chamber," allowing the collective anticipation for titles like Silksong to translate directly into awards recognition. This sets the Steam Awards further apart from industry-voted ceremonies like The Game Awards. Where the latter often balances critical acclaim, commercial success, and marketing presence, the Steam Awards are a raw, unfiltered measure of player passion, community sentiment, and the games that truly dominated the conversation within the PC gaming sphere.

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s double victory at the Steam Awards for 2025 is a defining moment, a community-anointed coronation for a game that lived up to its legacy. Beyond this headline, the awards collectively celebrate the full spectrum of the modern PC gaming experience: the respect for challenging mastery, the loyalty to games that grow over time, the awe for technical and artistic brilliance, and the joy of shared virtual spaces. In an era of countless awards shows, the Steam Awards remain the most direct line to the heart of the gaming community, and for the year 2025, that heart beat strongest for the haunting song of a silent knight.