COGconnected GOTY 2025 Best Music
When it comes to gaming music, 2025 was an absolute record year. The key word is eclecticism. Composers approached their projects with an open attention to different styles, drawing on a variety of historical and cultural sources. Overall, the best music this year was dominated by acoustic and orchestral textures, but there were also plenty of stunning synth or electronic compositions. Great job, composers!
10. Deltarune: chapters 3 and 4.
Toby Fox is not only the creative force behind Deltarune, but also the composer of one of this year's most memorable soundtracks. Every track of Fox's retro electronic score for Deltarune is crawling with earworms ready to take over your brain.
9. Hollow Knight: Silk Song
The game may be incredibly complex, but Christopher Larkin's score is emotional, melodic and lush. Like many of the soundtracks on our GOTY list, it easily holds up to outside-the-game listening.
8. World of Mario Kart
Under the direction of Atsuko Asahi, a handful of talented composers have created over seven hours of astounding music for Mario Kart World. Perhaps even more surprising is how great the big band, jazz and funk music is in the game.
7. Luminae occur
Lumines Arise is a game that focuses on mind-blowing psychedelic visuals, sound waves and powerful beats that drive the action. This is one of the few almost entirely electronic scores on our list, although it combines atmospheric and haunting vocals on many tracks.
6. Silent Hill f
Akira Yamaoka and Kensuke Inage are credited as the composers of Silent Hill f. The music combines acoustic orchestral sounds, avant-garde sound processing, electronics and traditional instruments, immersing the player in a bath of challenging musical cues. Not easy music for a game filled with horror and tension.
5. Death Stranding 2 on the beach
Ludwig Forssell's music for Death Stranding 2 On the Beach, like the game itself, is epic, bold and emotionally gripping. Forssell's score, which combines orchestra and electronics, crosses the boundaries of style and perfectly matches the dramatic demands of the game.
4. Hades 2
What's the best way to describe Darren Korb's score for Hades II? Four hours of stunning spectacle would be the beginning. With the help of music chart-topper Austin Wintory, Korb's music combines acoustic instruments, synthesizers, Arabic influences and more.
3. South of Midnight
As a game, South of Midnight came and went pretty quickly, but Olivier Derivière's music deserves to be on your regular playlist. Combining swampy rock, a cappella vocals, operatic arias and orchestral cues, the score is incredibly surprising and fresh.
2.Ghost of Yotei
It's no surprise that Tom Otov's score for Ghost of Yotei combines traditional Japanese instruments and melodies with orchestra and subtle electronics. It's amazing how much dramatic range Otowa can extract from these combinations.
1. Chiaroscuro: 33rd Expedition
Congratulations to the composer Lorien Testard for creating nearly nine hours of eclectic and beautiful music for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Ranging from intimate and heart-wrenching vocals to dramatic battle music, Testard's music is another example of why game music deserves great attention.
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