The Game Awards 2025 Leaves a Bad Taste in Viewers' Mouths
Nearly 40% rated this year's installment a "D or below".
Remember last year's The Game Awards ceremony? Which, despite a chaotic pre-show and the Catly debacle, got praised by the gaming community for delivering genuinely exciting game announcements, running fewer ads than in 2023, and – at long last – making the Muppets segments not cringe?
Apparently, the showrunners themselves don't remember any of that, with the 2025 iteration of The Game Awards prompting a completely opposite reaction from the community and leaving a bad taste in viewers' mouths.
TGA
In a recent poll conducted by the event's organizer and host Geoff Keighley, out of over 400,000 total votes, a staggering 38.9% rated The Game Awards 2025 "D or below," while only 15.1% gave it the top score of "A." By comparison, last year's poll showed nearly the inverse results, with 44.4% of voters giving TGA 2024 an "A" and only 16.1% giving it the lowest possible score.
With such a response, you'd better believe the community also made it clear in the comments why most of them disliked the show, with some complaints actually not really being TGA's fault.
Criticisms included, but weren't limited to: the ceremony's pacing, which made the second half feel empty and boring; the lack of suspense around winners in the most significant categories, as Clair Obscur's sweep and the GOTY title were expected by many; some of the biggest reveals – like Divinity or Leon in Resident Evil – having been spoiled before the official announcement; a lack of interesting game announcements in general; and Miss Piggy failing to live up to Statler and Waldorf by a wide margin.
A special "honorable" mention goes to TGA 2025's final "...and one last thing" game announcement – normally reserved for something truly incredible and unexpected – which this year was an upcoming hero-shooter from former Titanfall and Apex developers, Highguard, which got lambasted in the comments for, well, being a hero-shooter, with generic graphics and gameplay we've seen in hundreds of other titles – so much so it was even dubbed "Concord 2" by some.
And what's your take on this year's The Game Awards ceremony? Do you agree with the votes? What are your thoughts on Highguard? Let us know down in the comments below!
Don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
