The 2025 Game Awards Winners: Counter-Strike Claims Top Esports Accolade

The 2025 Game Awards winners have claimed their accolades at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. In an event set to honor some of the greatest and most influential names in the industry, games like Counter-Strike and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stood out as the biggest winners of the night.

When it came to the Best Esports Athlete award, the race became a tight affair between LoL's Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon and CS2's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut. Whoever the winner may be in your hearts, the 2025 Game Awards have made their decision.

Big Esports Winners: Counter-Strike, Team Vitality, and Chovy

We've had a terrific 2025 season across several different esports, there's no doubt about it. In the end, though, there could only be one winner for the Best Esports Game of 2025 (perhaps the biggest award of the night as far as esports are concerned).

Though the year is not over for Counter- Strike, the game and all the pieces that make up its esports scene have done enough to claim this prestigious award. Now, it's time to catch the grand conclusion to a year of CS esports at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.

The biggest esports winners of the 2025 Game Awards include:

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike 2 (Winner)
• DOTA 2
• League of Legends
• VALORANT
• Mobile Legends Bang Bang

Best Esports Athlete

• Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon (Winner)
• Brock "brawk" Somerhalder
• Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto
• Kakeru "Kakeru" Watanabe
• Saul Leonardo "MenaRD" Mena II
• Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut

Best Esports Team

• Team Vitality – Counter-Strike 2 (Winner)
• Gen.G – League of Legends
• NRG – VALORANT
• Team Falcons – DOTA 2
• Team Liquid PH – Mobile Legends Bang Bang

All Other 2025 Game Awards Winners

Content Creator of the Year

• MoistCr1TiKaL (Winner)
• Caedrel
• Kai Cenat
• Sakura Miko
• THE BURNT PEANUT

Best Performance

• Jennifer English – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Ben Starr – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Charlie Cox – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Konatsu Kato – SILENT HILL f
• Troy Baker – Indiana Jones & the Great Circle

Best Ongoing Game

• No Man’s Sky (Winner)
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Fornite
• Helldivers II
• MARVEL Rivals

Best Mobile Game

• Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Winner)
• Destiny Rising
• PERSONA 5 The Phantom X
• Sonic Rumble
• Wuthering Waves

Best Art Direction

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight Silksong

Best Score & Music

• Laurien Testard – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Christopher Larkin – Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Darren Korb – Hades II
• Toma Otowa – Ghost of Yotei
• Woodkid & Ludvig Forrsell – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Best Audio Design

• Battlfield 6 (Winner)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• SILENT HILL f

Best Adaptation

• The Last of US Season 2 (Winner)
• A Minecraft Movie
• Devil May Cry
• Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
• Until Dawn

Best Narrative

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Kingdom Come Deliverance II
• SILENT HILL f

Best Community Support

• Baldur’s Gate III (Winner)
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Fornite
• Helldivers II
• No Man’s Sky

Games for Impact

• South of Midnight (Winner)
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
• Wanderstop

Best Multiplayer

• ARC Raiders (Winner)
• Battlefield 6
• Elden Ring: Nightreign
• Peak
• Split Fiction

Best Independent Game

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Absolum
• BALL x PIT
• Blue Prince
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Debut Indie Game

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Blue Prince
• Despolote
• Dispatch
• MEGABONK

Best VR/AR Game

• The Midnight Walk (Winner)
• Alien: Rogue Incursion – Part One
• Arken Age
• Ghost Town
• MARVEL Deadpool VR

Most Anticipated Game

• Grand Theft Auto VI (Winner)
• 007: First Light
• MARVEL Wolverine
• Resident Evil: Requiem
• The Witcher IV

Best Action/Adventure Game

• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Winner)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Indiana Jones & the Great Circle
• SPLIT/FICTION

Best Role-Playing Game

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Avowed
• Kingdom Come Deliverance II
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• The Outer Worlds 2

Best Fighting Game

• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (Winner)
• 2XKO
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2
• MORTAL KOMBAT: Legacy Kollection
• Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O World Stage

Best Action Game

• Hades II (Winner)
• Battlefield 6
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• NINJA GAIDEN 4
• SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance

Innovation in Accessibility

• DOOM: The Dark Ages (Winner)
• Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
• Atomfall
• EA Sports FC 26
• South of Midnight

Best Family Game

• Donkey Kong Bananza (Winner)
• LEGO Party
• LEGO Voyagers
• Mario Kart World
• Sonic Racing Crossworlds
• SPLIT/FICTION

Best Sim/Strategy Game

• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Winner)
• The Alters
• Jurassic World Evolution 3
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
• Tempest Rising
• Two Point Museum

Best Sports/Racing Game

• Mario Kart World (Winner)
• EA Sports FC 26
• EA Sports F1 25
• REMATCH
• Sonic Racing Crossworlds

Best Game Direction

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Hades II
• SPLIT/FICTIOn

Game of the Year

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Winner)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

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Featured image credit: The Game Awards

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