Most Anticipated Video Games of 2025 & Their Release Dates

While it may be sad to see 2024 and its awesome selection of games in the annals of history, 2025 has plenty of interesting and exciting games to look forward to, and here are some of our most anticipated games of the new year!

Now of course, plenty of games are coming out in 2025 that haven’t been announced yet and just as many games don’t have a confirmed 2025 release date. Because of that, we’re only going to be looking at games that, for now, are confirmed to release some time in 2025. If they have a confirmed date, that’s great, but even if they have a vague release window, that’s just as valid. Of course, delays may happen and some of these games may not release in 2025, but that’s the nature of the beast sometimes. Also, this list isn’t some arbiter of whether or not these games are going to be good. This is just a little list to get people interested and excited about the – hopefully – great games that we’ll be playing in the new year.

So with that being said, here are our most anticipated games of 2025 and when they’re expected to be released!

Civilization VII (February 11, 2025)

As arguably the premier strategy gaming franchise, it’s always a major celebration when a new Civilization game is ready to release. It’s been nine years since the last entry and given all of that time, there’s a lot of excitement surrounding Civilization VII, especially due to it having a simultaneous release on every major console.

While the same tried and true Civilization gameplay is present, there appear to be several quality-of-life upgrades that also aim to simplify many of the finer details, like separating the time periods of your civilization into three distinct eras. It’s yet to be seen if these changes will pay off, but Firaxis Games has rarely disappointed, so it’s safe to say that the series is still in good hands.

Monster Hunter Wilds (February 28, 2025)

Within the past decade, Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has gained worldwide recognition due to how fun the gameplay loop of hunting massive monsters can be. It would be easy to say that Monster Hunter Wilds is just another Monster Hunter game – and it is – but that would be overlooking just how Capcom has refined and expanded the hunting formula.

Adding in new combat mechanics like a focus meter that will slow time for setting up shots and creating and exploiting monster wounds looks to make combat more engaging than ever before. As for the monsters themselves, while there will undeniably be even more giant beasts to kill, the pecking order in these ecosystems is more complex thanks to the inclusion of both Alpha Monsters and Apex Predators to make the hunt all the better. If you like Monster Hunter, Wilds looks to be the best entry yet.

Split Fiction (March 6, 2025)

Major AAA games aren’t the only big projects to look forward to in 2025. Split Fiction, the latest project by Game Awards darling Hazelight Studio, is set to continue its co-op focused pedigree with a game that blends together both sci-fi and fantasy elements. Taking control of two authors in a world of their imaginations, you’ll have to navigate using each character’s specific set of abilities to solve puzzles and progress, with the game’s gimmick being it’s local co-op only, much like Hazelight’s prior games. Provided you have a friend that you can rely on, this should easily be one of the more charming and compelling titles of 2025.

Grand Theft Auto VI (Q3/Q4)

Make no mistake, the biggest and most anticipated game of the year is Grand Theft Auto VI. To say otherwise would be a disservice. It’s so monumental that, quite literally, no other developer has committed to any release date in the second half of the year solely because they don’t want to release opposite GTA VI. Because of that, most of the other major titles in 2025 won’t be dated, but can you blame them?

Grand Theft Auto VI is seeing the franchise return to Vice City with such visual fidelity that it seems almost impossible. The hype is real for Grand Theft Auto VI and when it gets dated, expect it to be all anyone talks about for the weeks leading up to and after its release.

Doom: The Dark Ages (2025)

We have now entered the portion of the list where nothing is dated because no one wants to try and compete against Grand Theft Auto VI, but these games are still worth talking about. Doom is always a reliable franchise, especially after the 2016 revival, so seeing a third installment, Doom: The Dark Ages, is fine by me. Adding in a hefty dose of medieval fantasy, you’ll rip and tear as the Doom Slayer and… actually, who cares about the plot? You’re killing demons from Hell with a chainsaw shield. That alone makes it one of the most exciting games of 2025.

Ghost of Yotei (2025)

PlayStation had a fairly quiet 2024. Outside of Astro Bot, most of PlayStation’s big studios were pretty quiet about their next projects, but Sony’s next big game appears to be Ghost of Yotei, a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima. The game’s story will be set hundreds of years after Ghost of Tsushima and offer a new region to explore with allegedly new ways to influence the direction of the story. While certain segments of the internet may be grumbling about the game’s choice of protagonist, there’s no denying that Sucker Punch is fully capable of delivering an open-world banger that expands on what made Tsushima so great.

Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (2025)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best games of its generation. Thanks to Hideo Kojima’s vision and how unprecedented some of his ideas were, it was a singular game that was accessible for anyone interested in hopping onto the wild ride that was Metal Gear Solid. Remaking Snake Eater is a bold risk, but thanks to having other key figures in the franchise’s development besides Kojima on board, it’s in somewhat safe hands. The game seems to be a faithful recreation of the PS2 classic with some features from later entries in the franchise added in for convenience’s sake, as well as different control options for gamers seeking a more modern or faithful playstyle. While I’m still not 100% certain that Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater can live up to the lofty heights of the original, I’m interested in seeing Konami try.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025)

Nintendo is in a weird position for 2025. We know they’re going to announce the Switch successor before the end of March and with it a slew of titles that they’ll launch around the system’s release date, so for now, we can only look at the few Switch games left to release for the soon to be 8-year-old system. That being said, finally seeing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in action after years of inactivity was all people needed to catapult it into the discussion for one of the most anticipated games of 2025. Retro Studios has a proven track record and while there are still a ton of questions about this game, arguably more than any other game on this list, I’m all too eager to discover those secrets alongside everyone else when it releases sometime in 2025.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire (2025)

While I’m all in favor of naming a bunch of AAA games for this list, a part of me wanted to include at least one Indie title, and out of all of the games that have proclaimed they’re releasing in 2025, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is the most compelling. If you haven’t heard of this game before, it’s a first-person shooter where you play as a cartoon mouse in a 1930s-inspired setting, shooting other animals that look like they’re ripped out of a Flesicher-era cartoon. It’s giving off Cuphead vibes, which is an excellent compliment, and the visual style alone makes it worthy of attention. Here’s hoping it can stick the landing.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A (2025)

If you’ll permit me to theorize a little bit, since we’ve seen virtually nothing about the game since its announcement, I feel fairly confident saying that Pokemon Legends: Z-A may in fact be a launch title for Nintendo’s new system. I have no real explanation as to why that may be, but it just seems right given how tight-lipped Nintendo has been in the year since it was announced. Pokemon Legends: Arceus was the jumpstart the Pokemon series needed after a decade of refusing to innovate, so seeing a sequel expand on the mechanics of the first game would be a real treat. Add in the new processing power of Nintendo’s next console, and it would make sense why they’ve been so mum after all these months, hoping to use the new processing capabilities of this system to really wow players. At the very least, one hopes it can be more technically proficient than whatever happened to Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.