I don’t know why, but I had it in my head I hadn’t exactly been regular with these posts. The reality of it is, I’ve done one every year since I started, back with the 2020 edition.
See? Look. Evidence!
Previous Entries:
- Looking Back on Gaming — 2024 Edition
- Looking Back on Gaming — 2023 Edition
- Looking Back on Gaming — 2022 Edition
- Looking Back on Gaming — 2021 Edition
- Looking Back on Gaming — 2020 Edition
Perhaps I just thought so because I’ve been so irregular with posting in general so long. Each year, previously, I’ve thought: ‘Well, perhaps this is the year I pick up the pace again.’
Clearly — that year did not yet come.
For 2026, maybe it’s time for a new strategy.
Time to just accept… It is what it is, and I’ll do what I’ll do, and leave it at that. Definitely no attempts at self-reverse-psychology going on here. No Siree Bob. *cough*
The pattern of higher hours at either end of the year dipping the middle still (largely) continued. December this year though a notable dip, and while the month is early yet — I suspect January 2026 will be similarly low.
That’s jumping a wee bit ahead though. What did I play over the course of 2025? What now forms my top 10s for year, across months played, hours played, and then by preference?
Let’s find out!
Top 10 2025 Games — By Months and Hours Played
There is actually a Time to Loot first time record here.
Honestly, it’s probably a Nait first-time, at least in a very long time anyway. Possibly hasn’t happened since either Asheron’s Call or maybe Neverwinter Nights 1 (the Bioware game, not the MMO).
And that is, 12 consecutive months played of a game.
Honestly, I hold some mixed feelings on the matter that it happened to be a gacha game that got me to do it — but you know what? For now, I’ll take it.
And actually it’s 14 consecutive months, since my return to the game was November last year.
I was also shocked how far up the rankings Honkai Star Rail was in terms of hours played — but I guess on reflection I did hit it pretty hard early in the year while catching up on the campaign.
I don’t think I ever made a dedicated post to the subject, or even mentioned it — but it ultimately wasn’t the pacing issues which put me off playing Honkai completely. It was a decision to give their anniversary character (I forget even the name now) an account wide buff, as in, they didn’t even have to be in the active party to activate, making the character a ‘must pull’ in a way that started leaning more literal than I would like in a genre already renowned for being somewhat predatory.
… Can’t deny the hankering to finish the story still arises from time to time though, so I guess never say never.
Top 10 Games of 2025 — By Preference
‘By Preference’ simply being… How much I liked them! Regardless of time spent, or number of months played. Or more simply, what, of the games I played in 2025, did I like the most?
It doesn’t matter when they first came out for this list, only that I played them in 2025.
| Rank | Game | Hours Played | Months Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | 56.6 | 2 |
| 2 | Dispatch | 7.6 | 2 |
| 3 | Monster Hunter: Wilds | 66.7 | 2 |
| 4 | Blue Prince | 11.1 | 2 |
| 5 | BALL x PIT | 26.2 | 2 |
| 6 | Hades II | 17.1 | 2 |
| 7 | Where Winds Meet | 41.2 | 1 |
| 8 | Borderlands 4 | 46.1 | 1 |
| 9 | Battlefield 6 | 17.9 | 2 |
| 10 | Wuthering Waves | 366.6 | 12 |
I played 98 different games over the course of 2025. Well- 98 that I tracked in any case, which largely means I put more than an hour into them in at least one month.
I hadn’t given any thought to what my top 10 games might look like until recently, and only made any attempt to put it together here and now for this post.
I think it looks right.
I definitely shuffled some things around as I put it together. My only consistent point was Expedition 33 being my number 1. With no disrespect to any other game on the list — it isn’t even close. Expedition 33 feels to me, to be a generational masterpiece.
Perhaps one I still might revisit in order to do a series of posts on diving into full spoilers on the narrative. (Don’t worry if you haven’t gotten around to it yet, this post is not going there.)
Outside of E33, some of the game positions — and even what I chose to include at the expense of other titles — were interesting to me. Perhaps clearest example, Battlefield 6 vs ARC Raiders.
I spent more time with ARC Raiders (albeit not but a whole lot), but when I think about which one I had the most fun with and which I’d most like to revisit — well, Battlefield 6 comes out ahead in that contest.
Or Blue Prince making this list at all. I almost wonder if I should asterisk it, as my picking up of the game again in 2025 is continuing into 2026, and at least part of my increased like for the game occurred in 2026, just the other day.
Top 10 Games Overall — By Months and Hours Played
The overall top 10 is generally quite slow to move, but when you have an upset like Wuthering Waves coming in with 12 months of consecutive play and the hours associated with that, well, it stands to reason it might pip a few things.
And it did.
It jumped from nowhere near the top-anything to 2nd equal for months played and 2nd outright for hours played.
For Month’s Played, Helldivers 2 also staged an upset, managing to come in 10th, between this and Wuthering Waves, bumping Lost Ark and No Man’s Sky out of the list. Although I’d not count No Man’s Sky out for the count just yet, I’d strongly suspect it to make a comeback.
For Hour’s Played, Wuthering Waves was the only new entry — bumping Call of Duty out of the charts. I’d not currently be quite so confident that this one will make a return.
The ‘Complete’ List
Spoiler: This isn’t a complete list at all. Not by a long shot. There are 364 games listed in the spreadsheet (up 68 from last year) from over the (almost) seven years I’ve been capturing this data. This is just the top 63 (i.e., the number I could fit on screen without zooming out further). Last year, cutting it off here only excluded games with below 19.8 hours played. This time, the cut-off occurs for games at around 24.6 hours of play.
If you would like to look at the actual complete list — you can view the data set here.
Predictions
Predictions Made for 2025
- Monster Hunter Wilds is probably going to be my favourite game of the year. This will probably reflect in hours played most strongly, as I also expect that it will become a burn-bright ‘all-the-time’ game rather than a long, sustained presence.
Ooh. No… No it wasn’t. Now, granted, I think Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being as good as it is was a bolt from the blue. But even if I give myself the grace to ignore that one… There was still Dispatch.
But, you know, made it to my top 3 at least. And I think it’s true that it reflected most in hours played vs. months played.
- Cities: Skylines 2 will continue to make a regular appearance. And this is where I am going to lean into optimism once again and say, 2025 will be the year that Cities: Skylines 2 all comes together, with the fundamentals of the game largely sorted, and the first truly game-expanding DLC is announced (if not also launched!)
*sigh* I think my optimism for Cities: Skylines 2 might finally be at an end.
So far as my prediction is concerned, I guess I was right in that there was a full DLC released (Bridges & Ports), but I’d struggle to call it ‘truly game-expanding’.
And I certainly haven’t put the game into regular play rotation.
The improvements this year — outside of what the always amazing modding community have given — have been slight. To such an extent, that even Paradox has seemingly had enough, and Colossal Order, the long term developer of the Cities series has been shuffled off the stage, with new developer Iceflake coming in to take over from early this year.
Look, I’d like to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. But I’m not sure I have it in me at this point.
And honestly? Even if this is code for ‘quietly putting the game into maintenance mode’, it would hardly feel much different.
New Predictions for 2026
Well, after that downer of a note… What do I see coming for 2026 gaming? Something more positive I hope!
- GTA 6 will be delayed to 2028
Hah, I jest- I jest! I fully expect console players will get their hands on it this year as is currently planned — but given I plan on waiting for the PC release, perhaps this joke prediction isn’t too far off.
- Crimson Desert is gonna be awesome
And, likely, my personal GOTY. Crimson Desert could easily fall into the ‘too good to be true’ category of game, but… I’m choosing to believe! It will be a bit like lighting striking twice though after Where Winds Meet, another game in this category, actually managed to pull it off. Speaking of…
- Where Winds Meet will get some big updates and draw me in all over again
I’m not quite sure what this looks like for me yet. Northern Keifeng might do it. Or, fingers crossed, we see a whole new region — in which case I would certainly jump back in again.
Beyond this… Hard to say. It’s almost a certainty something will come and blindside me like E33 did, but that is pretty much a given. Well- maybe not quite like E33, I don’t know that we’ll see it’s like again this year or for some time to come.
But if I was to be wrong about any of my predictions, boy would I enjoy it being that one.
The ironic thing is, unless I’m misremembering, I only ever started playing Wuthering Waves after I read a fairly disparaging comment you made about it here. I think you tried it and didn’t think much of it? And then came back to it later and found it much more to your liking second time around. Unless I’m confusing you with someone else…
I must get back to it myself at some point, although I’m seriously wondering now whether I wouldn’t just do better to watch someone else’s playthrough on YouTube. As for Clair Obscur, somehow everything I hear about it makes me want to play it less. It was good to me in the TAGN Game League, though…
You are remembering correctly. :) In my May 2024 journal, I said:
I also gave Wuthering Waves a try on the recommendation of a friend. I tried to give it a fair shake, but it consistently gave me the feeling of ‘The Genshin Impact we have at home’. Having said that, the combat is without question superior in Wuthering Waves; it’s just… everything else. Quality of the voice recording is especially poor and distracting.
Which is somewhat funny to look back on now — because I would without any doubt call Genshin Impact ‘The WuWa we have at home’ these days. WuWa — particularly from 2.0 onward — has consistently put much higher effort into their animations and cinematics.
I stand by my comments on the voice acting of the early days though, with Yangyang in particular being especially an ear-sore. I remember you didn’t find her particularly egregious, but hoo boy. I did. And it wasn’t even entirely the VA’s fault — some of the early recordings from Yangyang in particular sounded like they had been done at home on a low quality (possibly even headset) mic. There is speculation from the community that some of these bits have been re-recorded at some point (same VA though) on higher quality gear, but I’ve not had the heart to go back and check for myself. xD
As with a lot of things though, quality shot up significantly from 2.0 onward. I would not only say I no longer have any issues with the voice work, but that in most cases it is actively excellent.
re: Clair Obscur, I think watching through the prologue on early bits of Act 1 (possibly, say, as far as them getting to the overworld map, as a clear marker to go for) could tell you fairly quickly whether or not you have any interest in playing through for yourself.