6 games that could be bigger hits than you're expecting in 2025

Games6 games that could be bigger hits than you’re expecting in 2025When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Tactical Adventures)

Fantasy adventurers face a giant foe in Solasta 2�s key art.

We and our council of games industry luminaries ranked Helldivers 2 highly in our2023 Most Wanted list, which is a small point of pride. The buzz around Arrowhead’s 2024 co-op shooter wasn’t nothing before it came out, but it was getting a whole lot less mainstream attention before it became PlayStation’s fastest-selling game ever than after. Sometimes we can still call ‘em.

And sometimes we can’t—I’ll never live down my prediction that Concord would be popular (and hopefully no one remembers how much I liked Brink)—but I think our hit radar is pretty well tuned on a team-wide scale. As we enter 2025, here are six games PC Gamer staff members think you should know about, because they might turn out to be bigger hits than the current hype levels indicate. (Though maybe notHelldivers 2-levelhits.)

Solasta 2

Solasta II - Official Announcement Trailer - The Game Awards 2024 - YouTubeWatch On

Solasta II - Official Announcement Trailer - The Game Awards 2024 - YouTube

We can only replay Baldur’s Gate 3 so many times. (He said, though his Honour Mode run is still in act two.)Solasta: Crown of the Magisterprovided an alternative way to get your fix of D&D 5E in videogame form, and a sequel that did the same thing with better writing and more of D&D’s character options available at launch—rather than having to wait for DLC to fill in the weird stuff—would be welcome. Don’t underestimate the audience of people who yearn for opportunities to upcast magic missiles. Solasta 2 doesn’t have a release date yet, but an early access release onSteamis expected this year. —Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor

Menace

MENACE - Announcement Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

MENACE - Announcement Trailer - YouTube

The developer of the excellentBattle Brothershas a new game on the way that looks to combine that game’s emergent storytelling and brutal scrabbling for survival with an XCOM-style alien invasion. There’s not a ton of turn-based strategy games on the docket for 2025 yet, and I think this could end up being a real high point for the genre this year. I think the one thing that held Battle Brothers back from being a much bigger hit was its quirky and slightly basic visuals—Menace’s more cinematic looks feel like the final piece of the puzzle dropping into place. -Robin Valentine, Senior Editor

Big Walk

Big Walk - Reveal Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Big Walk - Reveal Trailer - YouTube

When the developer of Untitled Goose Game announced its “online walker-talker” I thought to myself “oh neat” and then sort of forgot about it. But I think there’s a good chance Big Walk has a viral moment this year equal to the chaos goose antics of 2020.

Big Walk looks like it could arrive near the peak of one of the currentPC gaming trendswe’ve been watching: the rise of co-op proximity chat horror games like Lethal Company. This one isn’t horror but it has that goofing about with friends, physics, and puzzles energy that makes me think of my favorite moments in Phasmophobia, Sea of Thieves, and We Were Here all smashed together. Thereveal trailer for Big Walkmakes it pretty clear that House House is absolutely still in touch with its mastery of physical comedy and comedic timing. I can already hear my Discord group chat having a good cackle while wandering around Big Walk and if it lands in the right month it could be an unexpected multiplayer hit for the year. —Lauren Morton, Associate Editor

Hyper Light Breaker

Hyper Light Breaker | Release Date Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Hyper Light Breaker | Release Date Trailer - YouTube

Hyper Light Breakerisn’t exactly niche or a complete unknown, but I think it has a good shot of breaking containment and finding a sustained, explosive success like Risk of Rain 2⁠—a game HLB has no shortage of similarities with. And since RoR 2 has had a ton of difficulties sincetransitioning to Gearbox’s stewardshipfrom creator Hopoo Games (nowpart of Valve), there could be an underestimated appetite out there for “3D action roguelike sequel to 2010s pixel art indie favorite.”

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Further bolstering my vibes-based prognostication, it’s always seemed to me that Hyper Light Drifter was a game well-loved outside the usual indie game appreciator crowd, and a big portion of its audience may have skipped Heart Machine’s initially Epic-exclusive follow-up, Solar Ash. Breaker’s definitely on the right track releasing in early access (and on Steam) right at the beginning of the year on January 13 though⁠—Elden Ring: Nightreign, which is slated to release later on in 2025, presents some stiff competition in the 3D roguelike action-RPG space. —Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor

Psycho Patrol R

Psycho Patrol R Gameplay Compilation from creators of Cruelty Squad - YouTubeWatch On

Psycho Patrol R Gameplay Compilation from creators of Cruelty Squad - YouTube

Cruelty Squad should be a true sicko’s game, an action-forward immersive sim whose complex systems, psychedelic art style, and surreal writing all feel actively hostile to the player. So I’ve always been struck at how enduringly popular it is: Nearly 18,000 overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews at the time of writing, with clips from and references to the game surprising me where I least expect them on social media. Its comically nihilistic vision of a financialized, gig economy-ified far future really makes it the perfect game for our moment though⁠—I thank my lucky stars Luigi Mangione never played it and the funny papers had to try and spin up a controversy abouthim being into Among Usinstead.

Consumer Softproducts’ next game,Psycho Patrol R, has a lot of shared elements with Cruelty Squad: That anarchic, pitch black sense of humor, sprawling and intricate immersive sim level design, and an in-game stock market responding to the player’s actions, to name a few. There’s at least one big curve ball though: It’s a mech game where you can freely swap between on-foot and armored exploration, Titanfall-style. Not only did Cruelty Squad inspire tons of imitators and show there’s a clear audience forits type of thing, but I also think the free flow from on-foot shooting to mech piloting and back again is a rarely attempted, difficult to pull off concept that could broaden Psycho Patrol R’s appeal even further. —Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor

Midnight Murder Club

Midnight Murder Club - Crossplay Beta Trailer | PS5 & PC Games - YouTubeWatch On

Midnight Murder Club - Crossplay Beta Trailer | PS5 & PC Games - YouTube

Aside from its thematic similarities to games like Phasmophobia and Lethal Company, I pick up a ‘Hunt: Showdown lite’ vibe from Midnight Murder Club. There was a beta in December, and the response has been good. It’ll be out in February, according to theSteam page, and I think we’ll see it climb pretty high up the Twitch charts.—Tyler Wilde, US Editor-in-Chief

Bonus pick: Grand Theft Auto 6

Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 1 - YouTubeWatch On

Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 1 - YouTube

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Solasta 2#

Menace#

Big Walk#

Hyper Light Breaker#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Psycho Patrol R#

Midnight Murder Club#

Bonus pick: Grand Theft Auto 6#