Even Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can’t do it without breaking a sweat: most Game of the Year nominees from the last five years have a hard time retaining players. A new study has examined GOTY nominees across major ceremonies to find out which titles actually perform best over the long haul.
Do you know how many games launched on Steam in 2025 alone? Valve’s platform released a total of 20,015 titles over twelve months – slightly lower than some expected, especially after the massive surge Steam saw between 2023 and 2024. Still, the number raises an obvious question: with so many games (and many of them taking dozens of hours), do players even have time to properly finish what they start? A recent analysis by Sweepstakes Table went one step further and looked specifically at “best of the year” contenders: games nominated for Game of the Year awards at any high-profile ceremony, revealing that most newer releases struggle to keep players invested.
To reach its conclusions, the study examined factors such as average playtime, achievement completion rates, and player retention, then rolled them into a so-called “bingeability” index. The score is designed to measure how effectively a game encourages continuous play sessions and which titles genuinely manage to keep people glued to the screen. At the top of the ranking sits God of War with an 8.13 score, followed closely by Marvel’s Spider-Man at 8.07, and the indie hit Balatro in third with 7.83.
What’s particularly interesting is that only one of the top three games – God of War – actually won Game of the Year at a major awards ceremony, suggesting that critical recognition doesn’t always align with how strongly a title holds attention over time. It’s also striking that none of the games in the overall top 10, a list that includes titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Titanfall 2, and Celeste, are from the last five years.
Meanwhile, the study also highlights Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End as the game where players spend the most time compared to its estimated length. With a 9.59 ratio, users invest nearly ten times the expected hours into the experience – something that’s further boosted by Naughty Dog’s multiplayer component. Even so, multiplayer-heavy titles don’t dominate the overall list; instead, games without online modes occupy the top four spots, including The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Games Released Between 2020 and 2025 Are Struggling With Retention
The retention ranking is arguably even more revealing. Here, the focus is on which games manage to keep players coming back over time – whether through storytelling, mechanics, or ongoing conversation – regardless of whether those players actually complete the game. In this list, It Takes Two takes the lead with a 0.42 retention rate, followed closely by Red Dead Redemption 2 at 0.40.
The surprising part is how little representation there is from 2020 onward in the top five, much like the bingeability results. Outside of the 2021 GOTY winner, the most recent entry is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which posts a 0.21 retention score and lands in sixth place.
Right behind Sandfall Interactive’s RPG sits Balatro, a game that competed for GOTY at the 2024 Golden Joystick Awards and at The Game Awards, ranking seventh for player retention. In these cases, ongoing updates (such as Verse Drafts) and mobile releases have played a meaningful role in keeping communities active and engaged long after launch.
Source: 3djuegos
