Sneaky December has done it again. Here I was having a nice time with November, joking about the time February tried to explain leap years to August and the winter month crept into my blind spot. Now December is at home, reclining on the sofa with her feet on the table. At least he brought a gift: RPS Advent Calendar 2025a list of our favorite games of the year.
The advent calendar consists of what we consider to be the best games of 2025. We'll be revealing new games every day at noon for the next 24 days. Click on the door below to be taken to an article where at least one member of the team will tell you why this game was their year. The list, as always, is in no particular order – with the exception of December 24th, our final and objectively correct game of the year.
For this year's advent calendar image, we went straight to the beginning and asked IGN Senior Designer Amanda Flagg to depict the bear on paper. I think you will agree that she perfectly conveyed the awesome majesty and infinity of Horace. (The short description, which includes the line “Most importantly, never show his hind legs – the legend demands that he has no hind legs,” may be the highlight of my time in RPS so far.)
Our first advent calendar post will be out today at noon.
In previous years, trying to manually add links every day was a daunting task. However, I will try to correct past mistakes and update the advent calendar daily. My Horace bless my efforts. (If I spoil something, you can also find all of our published picks. Here.)
Our calendar voting rules are the same as last year:
Any game released this year is eligible for inclusion on the list, including games released in Early Access or games released in 1.0 after the Early Access period, as well as remasters or remakes that we deem particularly noteworthy. This also means that a game selected in a previous advent calendar may appear again. We sometimes allow games that were released in December of last year to sneak in if they came out after the voting ended, and games that we can justify releasing in 2025 their year, even if they don't come out in 2025. For example, a live service game that suddenly explodes in numbers, and an old indie game that came out of nowhere, or big, transformative DLC will all make a difference.
Voting occurs by each team member making a list of their ten favorite games of the year, with the first on the list receiving 10 points, the second receiving 9 points, and so on. These lists were compared to create the final advent calendar list, with this year's winner narrowly beating out the competition.
There is still time to take part in the celebration. Every year our readers organize Advent calendar guessing game and try to guess what our choice will make. However, you will have to act quickly. Although late entries are allowed, the maximum number of points you can earn decreases every day.
The RPS calendar appeared in 2007and almost every year since then: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 And 2013. In 2014 we did best RPS results which were exactly the same, only they were not based on the calendar. We have returned to the calendar format for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 And 2024. This is the nineteenth RPS advent calendar, if you count the terrible years (2008 and 2014).
