Game of the Year 2025 — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 breaks the internet with 9 awards across categories

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became the central headline of The Game Awards 2025 after sweeping nine awards across major categories, including the top honour, Game of the Year. Developed by the French studio Sandfall Interactive, the role-playing title broke the event’s all-time record, surpassing the previous benchmark of seven wins. Released in April 2025, the dark fantasy RPG had already attracted critical attention, but its awards performance pushed it into an entirely new sphere of visibility. The scale of its sweep quickly dominated online discussions, with scenes, characters, and music from the game trending across platforms throughout the night.

Awards across categories

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s nine awards covered narrative, artistic direction, performance, and genre excellence. The full list includes:

Game of the Year

Best Game Direction

Best Narrative

Best Art Direction

Best Score & Music

Best Performance (Jennifer English)

Best Role-Playing Game

Best Independent Game

Best Debut Indie Game

The mix of awards reflects the game’s broad impact, spanning both creative and technical categories, and highlights how a debut studio managed to compete on equal terms with established global developers.

A breakout moment for a debut studio

The reaction within the industry centred on the significance of Sandfall Interactive’s emergence. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the studio’s first major release, and yet it moved fluidly across categories typically dominated by larger teams. Winning both Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Game while simultaneously taking home Game of the Year underscored how the traditional boundaries between indie and mainstream development continue to shift.

Its world-building, layered narrative structure, and visual identity were key points of discussion among critics. Jennifer English’s performance, which earned her the Best Performance award, became another focal point online as clips and scenes resurfaced after the ceremony. The soundtrack and art direction also generated renewed attention, reinforcing why the game had swept so many of the evening’s creative categories