The ten worst games of 2025, according to Metacritic

[midian182]

In brief: The end of the year not only means a slew of Best of 2025 lists, but it also sees compilations of the worst that the last 12 months have brought. Much like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the unsurprising GOTY winner at the Game Awards, Metacritic's worst title of 2025 is equally predictable: MindsEye.

Metacritic ranks its 10 worst games based on the lowest scores. The site explains that it excludes any titles with fewer than 4 reviews, and that the reviews must come from "professional critics."

For any titles that appear more than once due to being released on multiple platforms, only the lowest-scoring version is included. Also, user scores are not counted – only those from critics.

Here's the top ten:

10. Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition (45 Metascore)

8 (tie). QUByte Classics: Glover (44)

8 (tie). Scar-Lead Salvation (44)

7. Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator (44)

6. Tamagotchi Plaza – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (43)

5. Gore Doctor (40)

4. Spy Drops (39)

3. Blood of Mehran (38)

2. Fire Emblem Shadows (37)

1. MindsEye (28)

There are certainly plenty of turkeys on the list, many of which most people won't have heard of. But there's one that made plenty of headlines a few months ago. Yes, MindsEye is the worst game of the year based on Metacritic's score – and by a considerable margin.

There was a huge amount of hype surrounding MindsEye prior to its launch. Build A Rocket Boy and publisher IO Interactive promised 2025's biggest blockbuster. Being the brainchild of former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies meant expectations that this would be a GTA-killer were high. Then it arrived.

The cascade of bad reviews, issues, bugs, and general erratic awfulness of the game led to refunds and universal mockery. The reason why the studio withheld advance review copies was laid bare.

That wasn't the end of the story. Just a month later, the number of people playing MindsEye fell below 20. The studio made layoffs as a result, and Benzies blamed the struggles on internal and external saboteurs, among other things.

MindsEye may be critics' worst reviewed game of the year, but it's only the second-worst based on Metacritic users' reviews. Players voted Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 as the worst of the bunch with a score of 1.6, making it one of the worst-reviewed games in Metacritic's history. Reviewers disagree: Black Ops 7's Metascore is a much more respectable 67.

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The ten worst games of 2025, according to Metacritic

 

[Burty117]

Players voted Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 as the worst of the bunch with a score of 1.6, making it one of the worst-reviewed games in Metacritic's history. Reviewers disagree: Black Ops 7's Metascore is a much more respectable 67.

Is 67 more respectable? It's a £70 game...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Mindseye is definitely worse then CoD7. they're both hilariously bad, but CoD is funnier to laugh at.

 

[NumberNine]

There were maybe 3 solid, full length PC games released this year out of the thousands shoveled onto marketplaces. This includes so-called AAA and AAAA titles.

KCD2, E33, & Silksong

 

[Axeia]

'professional critics' when it comes to reviewing entertainment products (games, movies, series) are utterly useless.
They'll lavish Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Assassin's Creed Shadows and Starwars Outlaws with praise. Meanwhile fans of any of these franchises are most likely sorely disappointed. Professional critics just seem to be about getting paid to give out scores and in a lot of cases pushing unpopular agendas. Definitely no shortage of competition for the worst game this year at least - so many disappointments to pick from.

 

[PaladinNH]

'professional critics' when it comes to reviewing entertainment products (games, movies, series) are utterly useless.
They'll lavish Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Assassin's Creed Shadows and Starwars Outlaws with praise. Meanwhile fans of any of these franchises are most likely sorely disappointed. Professional critics just seem to be about getting paid to give out scores and in a lot of cases pushing unpopular agendas. Definitely no shortage of competition for the worst game this year at least - so many disappointments to pick from.

Except Veilguard was good. Not Origins-good, but absolutely worth playing. I sadly held off for a year due to the reception, and found the gameplay very much improved from the generic MMO fare that was Inquisition. Expedition 33, Kingdom Come 2, Silksong... actually been a pretty good year.

But yes, I did drop AC: Shadows after a few hours (it was free anyway), and don´t know anything about Outlaws.

 

[PaladinNH]

There were maybe 3 solid, full length PC games released this year out of the thousands shoveled onto marketplaces. This includes so-called AAA and AAAA titles.

KCD2, E33, & Silksong

I JUST saw this post after mentioning the exact same 3 games in mine. Crazy. Awesome titles.

 

[Burty117]

There were maybe 3 solid, full length PC games released this year out of the thousands shoveled onto marketplaces. This includes so-called AAA and AAAA titles.

KCD2, E33, & Silksong

Split Fiction / Dispatch probably deserve an honorary mention.

 

[axiomatic13]

'professional critics' when it comes to reviewing entertainment products (games, movies, series) are utterly useless.
They'll lavish Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Assassin's Creed Shadows and Starwars Outlaws with praise. Meanwhile fans of any of these franchises are most likely sorely disappointed. Professional critics just seem to be about getting paid to give out scores and in a lot of cases pushing unpopular agendas. Definitely no shortage of competition for the worst game this year at least - so many disappointments to pick from.

I think you missed the boat on Star Wars Outlaws? It had a rough start, but if you look at the later released reviews, some are calling it the best Star Wars game to date. They changed all the things people did not like.

 

[Liranan]

I think you missed the boat on Star Wars Outlaws? It had a rough start, but if you look at the later released reviews, some are calling it the best Star Wars game to date. They changed all the things people did not like.

Nobody cares what Mercante and its ilk say about anything, if people cared then ND wouldn't be the latest victim of DEI addiction..

 

[OortCloud]

6.7 is about right for COD. It's really not a great game, it's just ok, but the ridiculous ten out of ten or zero out of ten voting that the internet moronosphere adopt means it gets slaughtered. It seems that the moronosphere have lost all ability to apply rational reasoning and nuance to their thoughts.