Xbox announces the winners of the Xbox Excellence Awards 2025 with 55 standout games

Call of Duty, Borderlands, Battlefield or Avowed, among the most recognized titles of the year.

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Xbox has made official the complete list of Xbox Excellence Awards 2025, awards that recognize the most outstanding games of the year based on real player activity within the Xbox ecosystem, whether on console, PC, portable devices, or cloud gaming.

These awards, introduced last year, are not based on external votes, but on usage data, ratings, and sales within Xbox and Microsoft stores, reflecting the real behavior of the community.

Xbox Excellence Awards 2025: categories and highlighted games

The awards are divided into four main categories:

• Store Rating: Titles with the highest average rating in the store (minimum 500 ratings).
• Player Engagement: Games with the highest average hours played per user during their first six weeks.
• Daily Active Users: Games or major updates with the most active users in a single day.
• Units Sold: Best-selling content in Xbox and Microsoft stores.

Among the most repeated names in the different categories, we find titles such as:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

• Borderlands 4

• Battlefield 6

• Avowed

• DOOM: The Dark Ages

• Elden Ring Nightreign

• Helldivers 2

• Forza Horizon 5

• Grand Theft Auto V

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

In total, the list includes 55 games, with 16 currently available on Xbox Game Pass, developed by 48 studios from 13 different countries and published by 24 different companies, in addition to 19 self-published titles.

Xbox highlights that these awards reflect the diversity of the catalog and the global reach of the platform, celebrating both large productions and independent studios that have managed to connect with millions of players during 2025. A good summary of what has marked the pace of the year in the Xbox ecosystem before heading into 2026.