The 2025 Steam Awards are here, and believe it or not Expedition 33 didn’t sweep through it

As is tradition by now, Valve hosted the annual Steam Awards, which ran for a couple months near the end of last year. Entirely player-based, the Awards are granted by Steam users alone, who, believe it or not, did not pick the undisputed king of gaming, Expedition 33.

Instead, the ultimate Game of the Year among Steam users was none other than Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game so wildly popular it crashed the platform upon its launch. Enjoyed by millions and highly-anticipated, it’s no surprise Silksong won, given just how long players had waited for its release since the first game in the series blew everyone away back in early 2017.

That isn’t to say that Expedition 33 won nothing. It, indeed, did carry home one award, the one for Best Soundtrack, and I wholeheartedly believe it deserved it. We can argue about how much E33 deserved the many awards it got, especially in some categories at the TGA (cough, Best Direction over Death Stranding 2, cough), but the soundtrack is so phenomenal and outstanding that no number of awards would do it justice.

E33 might have crushed the award shows, but Steam users have their own king. Screenshot by Destructoid

Silksong also won the Best Game You Suck At Award, again no surprise due to its overall difficulty, as is only natural for a Soulslike title.

Dispatch, too, was awarded here even if it was snubbed at last year’s award shows, primarily because its episodes started coming out after most shows had cemented their nominees. We should see Dispatch considered in the 2026 window, though, but it’s nice to see the Steam community recognize the game on such short notice, and in a category as prestigious as they come: Outstanding Story-Rich Game.

Other categories and winners include:

• ARC Raiders – Most Innovative Gameplay
• The Midnight Walk – VR GOTY
• Baldur’s Gate 3 – Labor of Love
• Hades 2 – Best Game on Steam Deck
• Peak – Better With Friends
• Silent Hill f – Outstanding Visual Style
• RV There Yet? – Sit Back and Relax

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