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There is no denying that this has been one of the best years in gaming. 2025 is shaping up to be a hotbed of fantastic titles that go above and beyond industry standards. If you look at the Top 10 best titles from either Metacritic or Opencritic this year, you’d find a common trend: They have no battle passes.
This isn't a surprise at all, as the major live-service games that recently came out didn’t exactly hit their mark. Long-running titles like Epic’s Fortnite, EA’s Apex Legends, Blizzard’s Overwatch 2, and a whole lot more existing IPs have already acquired a foothold in their respective communities, and up-and-coming live-service games like Splitgate 2 and the newly released King of Meat face no chance against these legacy giants. Plus, gamers have already reached the boiling point with live-service games as companies tend to shut them down whenever player interest wanes.
Single-players are up there this year, most especially indies that made it past the above-average threshold when it comes to critic and user reviews. Dogubomb’s Blue Prince, scoring a whopping 92, is a roguelike puzzler that almost took up half of my daily routine when it came out. Other indie titles have also made a huge impact this year, with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound proving that gamers still love a good ol’ ninja platformer. Both titles have scored 87 and 84 on Metacritic respectively, and it has already rekindled player interest for both franchises.
Indies are officially dominating the charts this year. Obviously, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is already poised to be Game of the Year, but with other indie titles that followed, such as Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong, fierce competitors against Sandfall Interactive’s prized opus have emerged.
There are only a handful of Triple A titles that made it to the top 10 this year, and that’s Nintendo’s Donkey Kong: Bananza, Sucker Punch Studios’ Ghost of Yotei, and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds. Of all these three games mentioned, only Monster Hunter Wilds has multiplayer elements, and despite many claiming that it’s a live-service title, most fans discourage that term as it’s purely a co-op experience.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a curious case. While often considered indie, as Kojima Productions isn’t directly owned by any company, it is Sony-backed, so there’s a gray area when it comes to identifying AAA and indie titles.
The year isn’t over yet. While all the best games so far have zero battle passes available, there are still major entries coming in the next few weeks. Titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 are already making their move. Both games are obviously getting aggressive microtransactions as well as Battle Pass content, but it’s still too early to tell if these games can beat this year’s Top 10 titles.
Overall, 2025 has seen a major shift in the industry when it comes to what gamers want. Now, single players and indies have dominated the charts, leaving live-service games on the back burner until something massive and revolutionary comes out.
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