Metacritic: the best games for Xbox and PlayStation are Split Fiction and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Poster of the top 20 games of 2025 for Xbox. Source: Metacritic

The Metacritic editorial team has published the annual lists of the best games.

Gamers can now check out the top 20 of 2025 for PlayStation and Xbox, but later similar selections for PC and Nintendo users will appear.

What is known

The games are ranked by their average Metacritic scores.

The highest-rated game of 2025 on PlayStation was the all-time favorite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, whereas the leader on Xbox was unexpected, yet it's indeed a “friggin' awesome game”— as its creator Josef Fares said, referring to the cooperative adventure Split Fiction, which surprised both in technical execution and artistic content.

Top 20 best games of 2025 for PlayStation:

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — 92 out of 100
2. Hollow Knight: Silksong — 92 out of 100
3. Forza Horizon 5 — 92 out of 100
4. Split Fiction — 91 out of 100
5. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector — 90 out of 100
6. Dispatch — 89 out of 100
7. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — 89 out of 100
8. Monster Hunter Wilds — 88 out of 100
9. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter — 88 out of 100
10. BALL x PIT — 88 out of 100
11. Sektori — 88 out of 100
12. Sword of the Sea — 88 out of 100
13. Final Fantasy Tactics — 88 out of 100
14. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — 88 out of 100
15. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II — 88 out of 100
16. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance — 87 out of 100
17. Absolum — 87 out of 100
18. Lumines Arise — 87 out of 100
19. Ghost of Yotei — 86 out of 100
20. Silent Hill f— 86 out of 100

Top 20 best games of 2025 for Xbox:

1. Split Fiction — 93 out of 100
2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — 91 out of 100
3. Hollow Knight: Silksong — 90 out of 100
4. Blue Prince — 90 out of 100
5. Monster Hunter Wilds — 90 out of 100
6. ARC Raiders — 88 out of 100
7. Final Fantasy XVI — 88 out of 100
8. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II — 88 out of 100
9. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance — 87 out of 100
10. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii — 87 out of 100
11. Two Point Museum — 86 out of 100
12. Silent Hill 2 — 86 out of 100
13. Mullet MadJack — 86 out of 100
14. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 — 86 out of 100
15. Helldivers 2 — 85 out of 100
16. Assassin's Creed Shadows — 85 out of 100
17. DOOM: The Dark Ages — 85 out of 100
18. Gears of War: Reloaded — 85 out of 100
19. Elden Ring Nightreign — 84 out of 100
20. Battlefield 6 — 84 out of 100

Source: Metacritic