GameStop Reveals Its 2025 Game of the Year, But It’s a Game That Came Out in 2007
GameStop has named Halo 3 as its Game of the Year for 2025, despite the shooter coming out 18 years ago. While all eyes in the gaming industry are now turning toward The Game Awards amid rumors and leaks of some big reveals, TGA isn’t the only event honoring the year’s best as 2025 comes to an end. Just one day before TGA, GameStop hosted its own awards ceremony, though this one is a little less serious.
After falling on hard times and making a surprising comeback, the retailer has made an effort to stay in the cultural conversation, often by poking fun at itself and others in the gaming sphere. In early December, GameStop ran a “trade-in anything” event, where it encouraged fans to bring in almost any item in exchange for store credit, even accepting taxidermized animals. Shortly after that headline-grabbing promotion ended, the store announced it would host the inaugural GameStop Awards exactly 24 hours before TGA 2025 was set to begin.
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Halo 3 Wins GameStop’s Game of the Year 2025
In the penultimate award for the night, GameStop named Halo 3 as Game of the Year, beating out two nominees that actually came out in 2025: Ghost of Yotei and Battlefield 6. To be fair, many fans say Halo 3 is one of the best in the Halo franchise, and it’s one of the reasons people often refer to 2007 as the best year in gaming. However, fans probably shouldn’t expect the 18-year-old game to win anything at TGA or the BAFTAs. If a 2007 shooter winning the best game of 2025 didn’t make it clear, the GameStop Awards was more of a tongue-in-cheek part-joke, part-promotion than an actual awards ceremony, with GameStop reminding fans that pre-owned copies of Halo 3 are still available at the retailer.
All 2025 GameStop Awards Winners
- Comeback of the Year — Fortnite
- Scariest Game of the Year — No, I’m Not A Human
- Best Pokemon Card of the Year — Charizard
- Best Nintendo Game of the Year — Donkey Kong Bonanza
- Creator of the Year — CoryxKenshin
- Shiny Hunter of the Year — Sauce McGavin
- PlayStation Game of the Year — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Worst Game of the Year — Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
- The Game I Only Had Time to Put More Than 2 Hours Into Because I Was Busy of the Year — Hades 2
- Best Call of Duty Skin — Jay
- Trade of the Year — Bobcat
- Best Xbox Game of the Year — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Most Anticipated Game of the Year — GTA 6
- Game Store of the Year — GameStop
- Game of the Year — Halo 3
The awards started off fairly normal, with Fortnite winning Comeback of the Year and No, I’m Not A Human winning Scariest Game of the Year, but it had some humorous moments, such as Hades 2 winning The Game I Only Had Time to Put More Than 2 Hours Into Because I Was Busy of the Year category. GameStop also named Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as both the Best Xbox Game and Best PlayStation Game, and it poked fun at Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, calling it the year’s worst. Many fans criticized Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour for its price, arguing that what’s little more than a tech demo should be free. The store also made fun of GTA 6, now delayed to late 2026, by naming it the Most Anticipated Game of the Year and referencing its own “trade anything” day by highlighting a stuffed bobcat as the Trade of the Year.
Naturally, GameStop named itself the Game Store of the Year as the final award of the night. The store did call this event the “inaugural” GameStop Awards, so the humorous ceremony could come back next year, too. For now, though, fans can look forward to The Game Awards at 7:30 PM Eastern Time for a more serious show and a full slate of reveals and announcements, though it’s uncertain if anything will be as unexpected as Halo 3 taking home the big prize.