I Played 31 New Cozy Games This Year, And My Top 6 Picks Are All...

At the end of every year I always feel impressed by just how many cozy games launched, and more specifically how many I actually found the time to play. Looking back, 2025 was a year where cozy games really broke the mold and appealed to a wider audience.

Notably though, I found that I didn't just spend hundreds of hours in a dozen farming simulators. This might be a conscious effort on my part, because other than becoming infatuated with Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, I actually didn't sink much time at all into finding my next farming obsession. So if you want to do the same, here are my favorite cozy games from 2025.

Some other games I spent more time than I like to admit playing, but didn't quite make the top six: Ritual of Raven, Discounty, Instants, Is this seat taken?, and Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.

The release of a new mainline Katamari game is always exciting, as someone who's poured hundreds of hours into the series already, and even more so when the game is absolutely fantastic from start to finish. These fast, time challenge levels that give you just one simple objective are incredibly moreish, and never have I felt the "one more run" mindset so hard. The story sends you hurtling through different time periods, never giving you enough repetition to get bored of.

Once Upon a Katamari also introduces new elements, welcoming new players while also refreshing the old experience for series fans. Rolling around has been streamlined through a new control scheme that simplifies movement, and new tools have been added to each level such as a rocket to help you move faster and a radar to pinpoint the location of valuable items like crowns. Anyone can pick up Once Upon a Katamari and have a good time, which I think is one of the reasons why I ended up loving it so much this year.

I wouldn't say that Once Upon a Katamari is your typical cozy game. If anything, it's much more chaotic than the casual, laid-back simulators I'd usually describe as "wholesome" or "cozy". But the amount of joy a few hours in this game provides me is what makes it so worthy. It might not have the lo-fi pastel colored goodness we're used to, but it does pack in simple rules, and adorable characters you get familiar with which in some way makes it a cozy game.

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Something about cozy games lends itself to unsettling concepts, and Poco is definitely a prime example

Source: PC Gamer