The most-played video games of 2025 for Polygon's writers and editors
While these may not be our GOTY picks, these are the games we played the most this year.
Published 3 hours ago
They're not our GOTYs, but also they totally are our GOTYs
Image: Sunblink
Table of contents
The lists
The winners
The woofs
The trends
The report cards
Listen, Game of the Year discussions are always fun. Everybody wants to know what the best games of the year are, but I find myself really curious about a different means of assessing the most impactful games: which games people actually played the most. While a lot of us put dozens of hours into highly rated hits like Blue Prince or Hades 2, there are tons of games we log into daily to crank out a round or two, whether it's out of love or as a strange form of sadistic self-punishment.
I'm nosey. I went around and polled my coworkers, asking them what game they sunk the most hours into this year. It turns out, many of which weren't even games that were released in 2025! I knew two things: One, there were games that my coworkers played a lot of this year, and two, that a lot of the time, we don’t always talk about these games in any capacity.
So with that said, here are some of the games Polygon's writers and editors played the most this year. —Julia Lee
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Austin Manchester, 70 hours)
Image: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive
The recently released Mega Dimension expansion (and its laborious grind) pushed my playtime with Pokémon Legends: Z-A up past 65 hours, putting it in a two-way race with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as my most-played game of the year. Expedition 33 also launched DLC to close out the year, and spending time exploring Verso’s Drafts (coincidentally the night before I sat down to write this) edged my playthrough to 70 hours and past Pokémon.
It’s fitting the RPG is my most played game of the year as it was my favorite game of 2025 (based on its The Game Award haul, I don’t think I’m alone there). Expedition 33 landed so well with so many players for a multitude of reasons: its strategic turn-based combat, Lorien Testard’s banger of a soundtrack, the full cast's gripping performances, and its emotionally relatable story. For me, I was immediately drawn in by the prologue that made tears flow like rivers. From there, it was nothing but six-hour gaming binges exploring everything The Continent had to offer. And, wonderfully, I’m still not done! I look forward to playing more Expedition 33 in the new year. Maybe I’ll finally do what some Sandfall developers couldn’t: beat Simon.
Dune: Awakening (Marloes Valentina Stella, almost 100 hours)
Image: Funcom
While fighting against severe dehydration, vicious sandstorms, and gargantuan sandworms, I managed to build a home on the most inhospitable desert planet imaginable. It might've been one of my greatest achievements in 2025, and well worth the time investment, but alas, this hard-earned home has since been swept away by the desert. Remind me, why did I spend close to 100 hours in Dune: Awakening, again?
Although my journey through Dune's sandy wasteland began as an assignment, its merciless sci-fi world ensnared me and kept me there for many enjoyable hours. But long before I hit the 90-hour mark, the motivation behind my expeditions into the barren wasteland began to change; rather than joyful sandbike rides in search of new land, they became chores, as I felt I had to gather materials to expand and maintain my precious base.
When you've spent many hours designing a home, it's not easy to let it go. I knew that if I left the base for several real-life weeks, the generator would run out of fuel, and my lovely desert house would slowly decay. But rather than accept this fate and cut ties with Dune: Awakening, I continued to log in, mine ore, find fuel cells, and recycle my own bodily fluids in an attempt to keep the early-game magic alive.
The result? I came to despise my most-played game of 2025. To be fair, though, that eventually made it easier to leave, and so I did. Now that we're approaching the winter holidays, I'm dealing with the reverse problem: first, I couldn't leave Dune: Awakening, and now I'm hesitant to return. No way am I spending another 100 hours building a sandcastle!
Fortnite (Chris Hayner, 128 hours)
I wish I could say I'm surprised Fortnite topped my most played games this year, but I'm not. I play multiple times a week with a rotating roster of friends and loved ones. My partner and I even have regular double dates with a friend couple in another state by fragging it out in Zero Build squads. Obviously, the stigma of Fortnite being a "kid's game" doesn't exist anymore. With content being added from The Simpsons, Star Wars, Terrifier, and Back to the Future, it's clear Epic Games knows that millennials with cash to burn are their bread and butter. And as an elder millennial myself, money to burn or not, I'm going to top 128 hours in Fortnite next year.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Julia Lee, 150+ hours)
Image: Sunblink
This isn't really a surprising pick for me personally, but it's kind of a surprising pick in that there were so many other good games this year that I also sunk my time into. I have over 100 hours in Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Umamusume: Pretty Derby, but… Hello Kitty Island Adventure still comes out on top at over 150 hours (as of this writing).
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a peak cozy game, with a similar vibe to Animal Crossing. Open the game every day and things will change around the island, with new visitors coming by, events to participate in, and quests to help your residents complete. I'm a sicko who likes to 100% games, so I want to collect all the items and complete all the quests. However, the team making the game over at Sunblink somehow manages to drop a free major content update when I'm just about caught up with the game, so I'll be playing this forever, I think.
This year was a pretty tough one for me for a mess of reasons, but every day I could reliably count on Hello Kitty Island Adventure to provide a steady source of normalcy for me, allowing me to log in to the game, water my flowers, and chat with my island residents.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (Paulo Kawanishi, 103 hours)
Image: Nihon Falcom, PH3 GmbH/NIS America, Inc.
I'm not against super-long JRPGs where hitting the mark of 80 hours means you have just reached the halfway point of the story. I dream about these moments. But when it comes to Trails Through Daybreak, part of the reason why I put in 103 hours is that the game forced me to work. I have a job — well, actually Van Arkride has it. He is a private detective who takes requests from people who can look for Bracer or other institutions for help. Sure, it is storytelling, but it's a narrative structured around gigs. During most of the 103 hours I put in this game in 2025, I was not saving the world. I was not doing endless leveling sessions. I was actually hustling for a decent pay, grinding in the never-ending capitalist machine so Van can keep his office's lights on.
Magic: the Gathering Arena (Corey Plante, ??? hours)
Image: Wizards of the Coast LLC
During the pandemic, Magic Arena became a refuge for my small circle of friends that used to play Magic: The Gathering together in-person. While our interest waned over time, we’d still sporadically revive “Friday Night Magic.” For me at least, everything changed when Wizards of the Coast released a Final Fantasy crossover set in June. I’ve been a huge fan of both franchises since the late ‘90s, so for some of my favorite video games to collide with my favorite card game felt like a fever dream.
In the span of six months, I have created dozens of decks in Magic Arena, mostly focused on Final Fantasy cards. I’ve purchased every “mastery pass” (the battle pass equivalent) since then and completed them — probably because I also log in every single day to complete the daily challenges that usually consist of something like “Play 20 green or white cards.” By the end of July, I had at least one digital copy of every single Final Fantasy card in the game. The daily grind and ritual of it all is a comfortable way to unplug, if only for a few minutes, to rip open a few packs and play a game I’ve loved for more than a quarter-century.
The really great thing that keeps me coming back to Magic Arena as a Final Fantasy fan is the delightful role-playing you can do in a match. You can literally attach the Buster Sword to Zack Fair from Final Fantasy 7, and then sacrifice him to make Cloud, Midgar Mercenary more powerful and equip the Buster Sword for free.
It’s probably a good thing that Magic Arena doesn’t track hours spent in-game, because that number would be staggeringly high for me.
Overwatch 2 (Josh Broadwell, 150 hours)
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
After a lengthy break from Overwatch 2, I dropped back in for a bit at the end of Season 15 to see what all the fuss about perks was. Eight months and over 150 hours later, I'm still playing a bit of Overwatch 2 every day and more than a bit on the weekends. Perks let you inject some mid-match strategizing and long-needed flexibility to adapt based on how the opposing team, and your own, play. Stadium's fantastic array of build permutations is endlessly enticing and risks taking up far too much of my free time. And this year's batch of new heroes — Freja, Wuyang, and, more recently, Vendetta — have done more to change how you can play the game than anything since the sequel was released. Greater freedom of choice was Blizzard's guiding principle for Overwatch 2 this year, and it's the best thing that's happened to the game since it launched.
Pokémon TCG Pocket (Giovanni Colantonio, 100+ hours)
I wish I could tell you that the game I’ve spent the most hours playing this year is Blue Prince. Spending 100 hours untangling its rewarding mysteries would be more dignified than the one game I played more this year: Pokémon TCG Pocket, a game that I actively hate.
Look, I’m not proud. When I started playing the mobile card collecting game last year, it was for social reasons. All of my friends were playing and it helped me stay connected with so many people, as every Discord server I was in got a new channel where we could all share our best pulls. I should have tapped out once that slowed down, but I just kept pulling. I logged in twice a day, without fail, just to curse my wonder pick luck, complain about the PvP scene, or pull my hair out as trading was mishandled. So why keep playing? If nothing else, Pokémon TCG Pocket has taught me that I love a good routine. Pulling my daily packs became a way to mark time through the day, in the way that lunch does for me. There are worse ways to remember that the precious minutes you have left on this Earth are ticking down than by looking at a cute Diglett drawing, I suppose.
Slay the Spire (Raphael Bennett, ~182 hours)
Image: Mega Crit Games
Please send help: Slay the Spire has been my most-played game for five years straight. I’ve unlocked every achievement on Xbox One, and it was the first game I launched on my shiny new PS5, and then Series X, and then Steam Deck, and in 2025, my Switch 2. I’ve logged nearly 35 days on Xbox alone… And then some monster went and put it on mobile. Oh, and then a board game version came out last year. What am I even doing with my precious time here on planet Earth? What culture am I missing out on while clinging to my eternal solitaire stand-in that I just can’t quit? I play 30 minutes a day — every day — without fail. I repeat: please send help.
Warframe (Simone de Rochefort, 180 hours)
Image: Digital Extremes
Back in January, my partner and I were coming down from a Minecraft kick, and we decided to pick up the space-ninja MMO Warframe. At the time I was playing it on Steam Deck, which is not the optimal platform for a game with speedy movement and shooting. But I still remember giggling with pure joy the first time I bullet-jumped in the tutorial. Warframe is just so smooth, so fun, so riotously unexpected.
Anyway, that’s why I’ve been hard-pressed to play anything else in 2025. Yes, I’ve dabbled here and there, and finished some shorter puzzle games (shout-out Strange Antiquities!). And we just started playing Elden Ring: Nightreign! I promise, boss, I’m trying to diversify my portfolio!
But it’s hard when there’s just so much Warframe left! This is the kind of game where I can look at my 180 hours and scoff, “pathetic.” I’ve almost caught up with the latest story content, or I would have if developer Digital Extremes hadn’t dropped a fat expansion on Dec. 10. This is the forever game. We’ve finally found it.
Wizard of Legend 2 (Ari Notis, 46.5 hours)
Image: Dead Mage/Humble Games
After crunching the numbers, I spent more time this year playing a vividly colorful, blisteringly paced isometric action roguelike that pits you against godlike humans with mastery over specific elements. What game? Wizard of Legend 2! Obviously. What, did you think I was talking about a different vividly colorful, blisteringly paced isometric action roguelike that pits you against godlike humans with mastery over specific elements?
Truth be told, I... don't actually know exactly how much time I've spent playing it! Wizard of Legend 2 is fine as a single-player game, but absolutely sings as a local co-op joint, to the point where I have literally not played it solo except for one tutorial run. But the game launched in a horrifically buggy state, with its multiplayer functionality bearing the brunt of launch-window errors. I'll spare you the details of how my friend and I got it to work, but the gist is that, every time we'd play, we couldn't play with both of our Xbox accounts, and would have to pick one — and which account we'd end up getting to work would be left to chance. On my account alone, I've clocked about 31 hours in 2025. Generously multiplying that figure by 1.5 (multiplying by 2 would probably be more accurate, but better to avoid any instances of unintended embellishment) brings us to 46.5 hours. Nearly two full days of my life. That sounds about right. Maybe a bit low, but nothing I'd call in congress to dispute.
Am I happy? Do I regret it? Would I do it again? Yes, no, and absolutely — in that order. The memories tied to a great co-op game are never just about the game. They're about the time you spend with your friends, laughing and yelling and silently agreeing to ignore life's more pressing tasks. They're moments destined to be looked back upon decades later as simpler, better times. You can even tell as you're playing that those vividly colored levels will be recollected in the sepia hues of fond nostalgia. So yeah, let's hope the multiplayer works seamlessly for Wizard of Legend 3. Then we can put some real numbers up.