1. The headline winners
| Award show | Top winner | Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Game Awards | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | December 11, 2025 |
| Golden Joystick Awards | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Ultimate Game of the Year) | November 20, 2025 |
| GDC Awards (Game Developers Choice) | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | March 2026 |
| BAFTA Games Awards | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Best Game) | April 17, 2026 |
| Steam Awards | Hollow Knight: Silksong (Game of the Year) | Winter 2025 to 2026 |
| IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize | Titanium Court | March 2026 |
This list follows public reports collected on October 14, 2026. Always confirm a result on the award's own site, and note that outlets sometimes disagree on small categories.
2. The Game Awards 2025
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards including Game of the Year, a record for the show, and was also named Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Game in reports of the results. Other winners included Hades II for Best Action Game, Hollow Knight: Silksong for Best Action/Adventure Game, Arc Raiders for Best Multiplayer, Battlefield 6 for Best Audio Design, Baldur's Gate 3 for Community Support and the Last of Us season 2 for Best Adaptation. Check the full list at thegameawards.com.
3. GDC Awards and the Independent Games Festival
At the 26th Game Developers Choice Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year plus Best Debut, Best Visual Art, Best Narrative and Best Audio. Blue Prince won Innovation and Best Design, Death Stranding 2 won Best Technology, and Consume Me won Social Impact.
At the 28th Independent Games Festival, Titanium Court by AP Thomson, published by Fellow Traveller, won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design. Wednesdays won the Audience Award and HORSES won the Nuovo Award. Details are on gdconf.com.
4. BAFTA, Golden Joystick and Steam Awards
- BAFTA Games Awards 2026: Clair Obscur won Best Game, Debut Game and Performer in a Leading Role (Jennifer English). Dispatch won Animation, Audio Achievement and Performer in a Supporting Role. Ghost of Yotei won Music and Technical Achievement. Atomfall won British Game and Blue Prince won Game Design. See the BAFTA announcement.
- Golden Joystick Awards 2025: Clair Obscur took Ultimate Game of the Year and Studio of the Year for Sandfall Interactive. Hollow Knight: Silksong won PC Game of the Year and Ghost of Yotei won Console Game of the Year.
- Steam Awards 2025: voted by the community. Hollow Knight: Silksong won Game of the Year, Baldur's Gate 3 won Labor of Love, Dispatch won Outstanding Story-Rich Game, Hades II won Best Game on Steam Deck and Arc Raiders won Most Innovative Gameplay.
5. What indie developers can learn
- Small, focused teams can win the biggest awards. Scope and craft matter more than headcount.
- Different awards reward different things: critics, developers and players do not always agree.
- Winning games share a strong identity, polish and a clear hook.
- Use the lists as a study guide: play the winners in your genre and write down what they do in the first five minutes.
Read how to make a successful indie game for the lessons, and see the game dev events calendar for the next shows, including when to submit.
Questions
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards, the GDC Awards, the BAFTA Games Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards.
Hollow Knight: Silksong won Game of the Year, voted by the community.
The top award at the Independent Games Festival. Titanium Court won it in 2026.
Yes. The Independent Games Festival is built for indies, and indie games have won major categories at larger shows.
Who wrote this
Imersa Studios builds the Unity systems, low poly packs and field guides sold on itch.io. The code and techniques here come from shipping those products. More about the studio.