Even before The Game Awards 2025 started, there was really no question about which game would own the night. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t just win big — it practically turned the awards show into its own personal showcase. For months, it had been the one game everyone pointed to when discussing 2025’s standouts. Some even bet big on it. By the time the ceremony rolled around, the industry as a whole basically formally acknowledged what the community had been saying since launch.
At the TGA 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 walked away with nine major awards:
- Game of the Year 2025.
- Best Game Direction.
- Best Narrative.
- Best Art Direction.
- Best Score & Music.
- Best Role-Playing Game.
- Best Independent Game.
- Best Debut Indie Game.
- Best Performance by Jennifer English as Maelle.
Beating the likes of Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2. Meanwhile, in a twist nobody had on their bingo card, another GOTY contender, Hollow Knight: Silksong, only nabbed Best Action/Adventure Game.
If anyone still wonders why Expedition 33 dominated the GOTY and awards conversation all year, the sales data backs it up. According to Alinea Analytics, the game is selling twice as fast as most recent turn-based RPGs on Steam.
Compared to heavyweights like Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it moved up to 3.9 times more copies in the same time window, a staggering gap considering it comes from a debut studio. In just five months, it hit the 5 million milestone; the kind of success even veteran studios would kill for. Alinea also shows that Eastern countries have become the game’s strongest market, making up roughly one-third of its Steam audience. A sign that its realistic-yet-artistic visual style and pacing are landing far beyond the traditional JRPG fanbase.
But Expedition 33 didn’t sweep just because it made turn-based cool again — basically proving industry giants like Square Enix completely wrong. As our Julio La Pine noted in his review, “the skeleton of the genre is there.” But the game does many things that “make that familiar skeleton morph into something completely new.” That balance of the familiar with a Lost Odyssey-like modern production is exactly what allowed a classic combat style to feel modern. Without having to turn it into a completely different genre altogether, like an action game.
The cast and narrative, too, played a huge role in molding the game into one complete package. Who can forget Gustave and that moment at the end of Act I? It’s the kind of emotional gut punch that will stick with players long after the credits roll.
To be fair, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s TGA 2025 GOTY sweep wasn’t without its debates. Some questioned whether the game truly fit the ‘indie’ label. People point to its level of polish, production values, and its amount of staff and external support as evidence that the category itself might need a rethink.
But minor discourse aside, the overall reception to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning was overwhelmingly positive. Largely because the game had been commanding the conversation from the moment it launched. It topped review charts, dominated social media talks, and inspired video essays and fan works.
So yes, the sweep was expected. Anyone paying attention saw the momentum months before TGA rolled around. But ‘expected’ doesn’t mean ‘undeserved.’ Expedition 33 won GOTY because it refined the genre rather than chasing trends. In the flood of revenue-chasing live-service games, it offered the kind of focused, handcrafted solo experience players have been pleading for years.
If anything, the real story isn’t that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dominated the awards and won GOTY. It’s that it proved old-school gameplay, like turn-based RPGs don’t need to be reinvented and abandoned, only respected.
