The year indie games took over the industry

I've been playing indie games for years, but 2025 genuinely felt different. Watching The Game Awards this year, more than half of the Game of the Year nominees were indie titles, and the winner — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — walked away with the top prize plus eight more awards. A near clean sweep at the biggest show of the year, from a game made outside the big-budget machine.

The numbers back it up too. Indie games pulled in around 25 percent of Steam's total revenue last year, roughly $4.5 billion out of $17.7 billion. That's massive when you consider how many huge AAA releases dropped in the same window. Half of the best-performing games on the platform were indies.

The moment that stuck with me was Hollow Knight: Silksong's launch. It hit nearly 600,000 concurrent players on Steam, and the sheer volume of people buying at once actually crashed the storefronts — pre-orders weren't available, so everyone piled in at the same second. Expedition 33, Dispatch, Megabonk, and Schedule I also posted huge launch numbers.

What I love most is that these small teams won by leaning into creativity and community instead of budget. That's the kind of energy that keeps this hobby interesting. Here's hoping 2026 keeps the momentum going.

Source: Into Indie Games