Hollow Knight Silksong wins Steam’s Game of the Year with a staggering 43 million votes from PC players

Published:

5 January 2026

Last Updated: 5 January 2026

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Team Cherry’s very-long-awaited Metroidvania Hollow Knight Silksong has taken the crown for Steam’s player-voted Game of the Year Award.

Crowned in the 2025 Steam Awards, the extremely challenging, adorable Metroivania game cinched the win with a staggering total count of 43.8 million votes. Additionally, the game took home the coveted Best Game You Suck At award.

Hollow Knight Silksong released last year with a fervour. While the game may not have won the annual Game Awards GOTY award, which instead went to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the brilliant indie game has made its mark on Steam for a second time.

When the game released on September 4, 2025, the game’s rampant popularity caused major issues for the PC gaming marketplace. On launch, Steam, as well as Xbox and other storefronts, were largely unavailable as millions of players flooded the service to play the game.

Despite some qualms about the game’s difficulty, Hollow Knight Silksong has proven itself to players, and it’s definitely one of the most popular games released on Steam during 2025. While the game itself is out, there is additional content in the works for the game including the upcoming Sea of Sorrow expansion.

As for the 2025 annual Steam Awards, there were a handful of other winners. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 handily took home the Best Soundtrack award; Best Game on Steam Deck went to the phenomenal Hades 2; Outstanding Visual Style was granted to the gorgeous Silent Hill F; and VR Game of the Year was handed to The Midnight Walk.

Even Larian Studios’ 2023 RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 received an award during the annual celebration, this time for Labor of Love, as a result of its continued support for the game.

Alongside continued support for Silksong, Team Cherry is also working on a new Hollow Knight Nintendo Switch 2 release for Nintendo’s latest handheld.

About The Author

Lewis White

Lewis White is a veteran games journalist with over a decade in the field. Starting with beloved Xbox website ICXM/XboxMAD, Lewis became the Gaming Editor at MSPoweruser before becoming the Editor in Chief of StealthOptional and Gfinityesports. Lewis later jumped to By Gamers For Gamers where he jumped to become EIC of VideoGamer and the host of the New VideoGamer Podcast prior to the website’s acquisition.

Over the years, Lewis has also seen long-form investigative pieces published in outlets such as Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, Retro Gamer, Nintendo Life, and EDGE. Now, as the Editor in Chief of FRVR Blog, Lewis strives to bring the same level of quality journalism with interview-led content to the site in both written and audio form with the FRVR Podcast.

With a First Degree BA Hons in Games Journalism and Public Relations, Lewis has been a stable part of the British games press for over a decade, and has frequently displayed his love of Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and other games pretty much everywhere he’s worked. And FRVR is no different.

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