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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stormed The Game Awards 2025, winning all but two categories it was nominated in, including the main prize: Game of the Year.
Sandfall Interactive’s much-loved RPG won Game of the Year ahead of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Accepting the Game of the Year award to rapturous applause, director Guillaume Broche thanked the “incredible team” at Sandfall Interactive, most of whom were in attendance and in costume. Broche extended his thanks to the “unsung heroes” of the video game industry, “the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game, because we had no idea how to make a game before.”
The Game of the Year award goes to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33! #TheGameAwards @expedition33 @sandfallgames @kepler_interact pic.twitter.com/s33D7xvdvq
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 12, 2025
Broche went on to issue a personal thank you to Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, “who inspired me to become a game dev.” Broche ended his speech by announcing the shadow drop release of Clair Obscur DLC.
Clair Obscur also won Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score And Music, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best RPG. Jennifer English won Best Peformance for her role in the game.
The only categories Clair Obscur was nominated in but failed to win were Best Audio Design, which went to EA’s shooter, Battlefield 6, and Players’ Voice, which went to Wuthering Waves. Still, it’s a remarkable result for the relatively small team at Sandfall Interactive, especially given Clair Obscur is its debut title.
Clair Obscur launched in April right up against Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, with both games hitting Game Pass as day one releases. It was felt that Clair Obscur might struggle under those circumstances, but it enjoyed instant and significant popularity, and would go on to sell 5 million copies by October.
IGN’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story.”
Be sure to check out everything announced at The Game Awards 2025 for more, as well as the winners list in full.
Photo by Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
