Breaking PC Gamer's Highest Review Scores Of 2025

If you're looking for something a little more niche than Battlefield 6, there are some lesser-known bangers among this year's 89%+ scores.

The most notable thing about this year's list of PC Gamer's highest review scores is what doesn't appear on it. Many of the games that are in the running for one of our Game of the Year awards aren't represented, including Elden Ring Nightreign, Battlefield 6, Europa Universalis 5, Arc Raiders, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Those games all received favorable scores by our standards, just not quite favorable enough to pass the bar I've set here, which is 89%-and-up. Clair Obscur received what was probably our most controversial score of the year at 70%—still a recommendation for the French RPG, though not the shining praise it got elsewhere. (Including from some of PCG's other writers.)

Reviews aren't a measure of popularity or an attempt to arrive at the average opinion, so I don't consider these notable absences a bug. There's a lot to appreciate about the two most-played new games right now, Battlefield 6 (82%) and Arc Raiders (86%), but to get a really high score, a game has to inspire an individual reviewer to go out on a limb and champion it, perhaps even pushing back on editors whose responsibility it is to ask, "OK, but is it actually a 92%?"

As 2025 draws to a close, the overall impression I'm left with is one of quiet competence. There were boundary-pushing games this year, but games like Battlefield 6, Silksong, Avowed, Europa Universalis 5, and Hades 2 strike me as the result of people who know how to make good games just doing their thing with admirable focus. Excelling at the fundamentals can take you a long way, although out of those examples, only Silksong made it to this list.

PC Gamer's highest review scores of 2025 follow below. Head to our review section to see all of our recent reviews, and for a preview of what's ahead, check out our 2026 videogame release date calendar.

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Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to h

Source: PC Gamer