Game Awards 2025 celebrates new and revelatory gaming excellence, recognizing games that captured our attention and drove cultural moments. We take this opportunity every year to check out the nominations and see how they perform on live streaming. How does the largest community of gamers online interact with these games, and is their support enough to predict this year’s award winners?

When we covered The Game Awards 2024, our rankings predicted winners in four of the eight categories covered…but we think we can do even better this year. So, to give a fairer comparison of popularity, we’ve ranked games based on the highest number of monthly viewers over the past year. We also provide insight into what makes these games stand out and why upsets are possible in each category. We’ll also link to coverage of specific games and creators from the past year for more information.

The categories to focus on this year are…

Key points by Stream Hatchet:

• The nominee for Game of the Year with the most monthly streams was Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which was watched for 48.8 million hours.
• The Game Awards category with the most total viewers was Best Esports Game, with League of Legends leading the way with 246.6 million hours watched.
• Grand Theft Auto VI has been nominated for the most talked about and most anticipated game of all time with 496,000 unique chats on Twitch since May 2025

Game of the Year nominees

Let’s start with the most popular category: Game of the Year. Last year’s winner, a platformer astro robotwas a complete curveball that threw many critics for a loop. This year will be filled with high-quality matches, making predictions even more difficult. In order of monthly viewing time, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 It brought in 48.8 million hours of viewing, narrowly beating out the most nominated game at this year’s awards. Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33. However kingdom come Leading in View Time, Huge Hype Behind It chiaroscuro He is the favorite to win here. But no one knows. Game critics and media may choose to reward Team Cherry’s long-awaited work. Hollow Knight: Silk Song For being the pinnacle of Metroidvania gaming, just as it rewarded platformers. astro robot last year.

Best Game in Progress Candidate

The Best Ongoing Games category recognizes what are commonly referred to as live service games, meaning games with seasons, battle passes, and microtransactions. It’s no surprise that we’re seeing an OG live service game. fortnite continues to dominate the charts with the highest monthly viewership of 107.4 million hours. In addition to that, fortnite This could tip the balance of cultural relevance in favor of the game. but, fortnite Facing stiff competition from new entrants marvel rivals This was an absolute phenomenon when it was released last December and almost equaled it fortniteThe score has been watched for 91.8 million hours. In comparison, Final Fantasy XIV And its community events only garnered 6.6 million hours of viewing.

Best Multiplayer Game Nominee

The Best Multiplayer Games category is always difficult to predict. In one space, a massive online juggernaut competes in cute couch co-op games. If you’re considering online multiplayer, ARC Raiders Not only did it bring in the highest monthly viewership of 127.8 million hours, but it also generated the most hype as it ushered in a new era of extraction shooters. In comparison, elden ring night train It fell behind with just 51.9 million hours of viewing. However, Hazelight Studios split fiction wins the award: The game has received overwhelming praise for its story, and Hazelight has previously won the top award, winning Game of the Year in 2021. 2 required. For us, it’s a toss-up between: ARC Raiders and split fiction Here, with a slight edge, ARC Raiders For pure cultural influence.

Best Esports Game Nomination

When it comes to the impact of live streaming on these categories, Best Esports Games have been the most affected. First, the candidates listed here have the highest total viewing time compared to other categories. Second, events like the Esports World Cup and support from top co-streamers are essential to the success and online reputation of these games. Given that there haven’t been any major changes to the esports landscape this year, it’s likely that: league of legends wins the award again (and hits a new record for monthly viewership with 246.6 million hours). The only upset here is that critics are awarding the growing support for mobile esports. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

Best independent game nominee

2025 was truly the year of indie games. Three of the six games nominated for this year’s Best Independent Game were also named in the Game of the Year category. And perhaps not coincidentally, these are also the three most popular games for live streaming in this category. Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silk Songand hades 2. The abnormal value here is blue prince Unlike the aforementioned titles, this one was essentially led by one developer (Tonda Ros). I’m sure the judging panel has their eye on Tonda, so I’m guessing this category is: blue prince For puzzle game innovation, or chiaroscuro We will thoroughly penetrate and eliminate this category as well.

Best Mobile Game Nominee

The fan base for mobile gaming is truly growing worldwide. However, the top two games in this category by monthly viewing time both have one thing in common. That being said, it’s an anime gacha game. Although 2nd place storm waves It was nominated last year (5.5 million hours watched), but this time the clear favorite is Uma Musume Pretty Derby (9.1 million hours of viewing time) The absurd fusion of the anime bride and horse racing stirred excitement online. Given the field is fairly homogeneous here, this pure hype will probably be enough to pick up a win. But there may be space sonic rumble Let’s take a look at SEGA’s take on the battle royale party game genre.

Content Creator of the Year nominees

This is our basics. An overview of the most popular content creators of the past year. This year was truly a memorable year. Kagic sammotu has 7 files This was the (supposedly) final episode of this annual tradition, which brought in 84.2 million hours of viewing. This represents 60% of his total viewing time of 140 hours over the past year. As an event that bridges streaming and mainstream culture with a string of celebrity cameos, Mafiathon 3 seems to have made Kai Senat the favorite to win this year.

But let’s take a look at other candidates who are equally deserving of praise. Caedrel brought in 110.4 million hours of viewing thanks to experts league of legends This made him a central figure in the community. Miko Sakura is waving the flag for the growing popularity of VTubers that have taken YouTube by storm over the past couple of years. And then there are the creators that I’ve been talking to a lot over the past few months. TheBurntPeanut has become famous for his streaming persona, which is more like a VTuber. Escape from Tarkov Thanks to him, it is now receiving more mainstream attention. ARC Raiders stream (like recent) Battle of Speranza Community Event).

Most anticipated game nominations

Finally, we took a slightly different approach to predicting the winner of the Most Anticipated Games category and looked at the nominated games’ chat mentions on Twitch. To be honest, even the average reader can guess which game will come out on top here. Grand Theft Auto VI It’s the most hyped game launch ever There have been 496,000 chat mentions in the past year, which means (thanks to many delays) it could overtake this category for the second year in a row. The memes that emerge from such acts are irresistible to judges. meanwhile Resident Evil Requiem With 76,000 chat mentions, Capcom continues to produce highly-hyped games this year and beyond. monster hunter wildwhile the game adaptation 007 First Light It only has 9,000 mentions in chat.

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We are waiting with bated breath for the announcement of the winners on Thursday the 11th.^th We’ll see if the voices of the livestreaming community are reflected in the judge’s ruling. But regardless of the winner, the number of high-quality games in contention proves that the industry needs to up its game to capture audience interest. From great RPGs like chiaroscuro Up to amazing multiplayer games like ARC Raidersevery genre remixes elements in new and exciting ways. And as always, live streaming will continue to be a forum for discussing the quality of games into 2026.

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