The best indie games in 2025

I’ve always been a fan of big-budget blockbusters, whether it be movies or video games, but when it comes to the latter, I’m beginning to see the light more and more: indie games are the lifeblood.

While 2025 had its fair share of AAA successes (Death Stranding 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, and Ghost of Yōtei spring to mind), it was dominated by indie games. Smaller teams, smaller budgets (mostly), but big aspirations and even bigger excitement.

Here are Destructoid’s picks for some of the best indie games throughout the year of 2025.

Best 2025 indie games

Hades 2

The masters of the action roguelike genre returned with the 1.0 release of Hades 2. Supergiant Games iterated on and continues to perfect the addictive and satisfying gameplay, wrapped in a stunning art style set against Greek mythology to create one of the best overall games of 2025.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

There’s an argument to be made about what’s indie and what isn’t, but this list was never not going to include Expedition 33. Sandfall Interactive’s debut title was Destructoid’s 2025 Game of the Year, and just about everyone else’s, too. And it deserves it.

Ball x Pit

Ball x Pit caught my eye immediately when it dropped as a Steam demo earlier in the year. Upon release, I had the pleasure of reviewing it for Destructoid, and it became one of my top titles of the year overall. Base-building, ball-breaking, roguelike action wrapped up in a beautiful pixel art style created something truly memorable and still (so far) the most fun I’ve ever had with balls.

Absolum

Another gorgeous roguelike. Are you noticing a trend? Many of the top indies this year took the roguelike genre and put a lovely spin on it, like Absolum, which is a fantastic co-op beat-em-up with a Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic and also one of my overall favorites of 2025.

Blue Prince

Before Expedition 33 launched a few weeks later, Blue Prince was at the top of many gamers’ shortlists for GOTY 2025. It still deserves that honor as one of the more innovative and challenging puzzle games in recent memory.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

When it comes to hype and anticipation, Silksong had some insurmountable expectations after years of quiet and delays. Fortunately for everybody involved (including us gamers), it delivered and then some, offering a fantastic and challenging expansion of the Metroidvania genre.

Dispatch

I got an early look at Dispatch at a preview event with devs the month before it came out, and knew right away it would be something special. Many who helped create it previously worked at TellTale Games, and that quality shines through in every one of its eight episodes, crafting one of the best narratives of the year.

Plus, it’s got this hot, towering devil lady.