Greetings, everyone, and welcome to one of my most-anticipated blog posts of the year: the Playstation Wrap-Up for 2025!
However, let's just go ahead and get this out of the way right now - this was a disappointing year for Playstation's yearly recap. Typically, they're really good about continuing to update the stats through December 31, but this year, despite the website being up through January 8, I didn't see an update to my numbers after December 23. This really rubbed me the wrong way this year, in particular, because I was on paternity leave during all of December, so I know that I got short-changed. This means that my numbers this year are not completely accurate and, most likely, quite different than what they actually wound up being.
But with that in mind, we'll jump in and break down my top games from last year, with a bit of an asterisk on top of it all. Let's take a look and see what topped the Playstation charts for 2025!
Total Hours:
Playstation said that I played 961 hours this year, but I know that to be lower than whatever the final number ended up being. I presume that I probably played another 10 or 15 hours (maybe more) in the final eight days of the year, especially considering that I wasn't working at the time.
The screenshots above also don't indicate that I spent a dozen hours or so playing the Playstation 3, cleaning up trophies on Skyrim and some old NCAA football games that my brother played on my profile back during my college years. (Also, if I did play "a dozen hours or so" on the PS3, the numbers in the Wrap-Up wouldn't add up. I'm skeptical.)
Ultimately, I don't know what my total number of hours for 2025 ended up being, so we'll just call it "961+ hours," for the sake of my final stats.
I wish that they would have given me the stats for my controller usage because I've been using a new purple controller pretty much exclusively for months, so I really must have loved that black controller in the first half of the year.
Top Five Games:
- Assassin's Creed Shadows: Ah, yes. "Assassin's Creed Shadows." After getting some real burnout from "Assassin's Creed Valhalla," I was hesitant to pick up the next big, open world installment in the franchise, especially after having played the significantly smaller "Mirage," but I had a great time sneaking around Japan as Naoe and Yasuke. I learned to rely on Naoe for exploration and Yasuke for butt-kicking but truly enjoyed playing with both characters, which I had been a little hesitant about. I, sadly, didn't spend nearly as much time cultivating my ninja hideout as I thought I would, when I first heard that that was going to be a thing, but that was still a fun aspect of the game. My mind was constantly blown when I thought for the thirtieth time, "There's no way that this villain board can get any bigger," and then watched in amazement as a new sub-faction of thugs appeared in my objective map. I picked up the "Claws of Awaji" DLC but only played that for about an hour around Christmastime, so my total number of hours played actually should have been 95, not 94, but who's counting, right? Thanks to Assassin's Creed for pumping out a game that never felt too big and never made me bored. Good stuff.
- Star Wars Outlaws: I hadn't heard a single good thing about "Star Wars Outlaws," but I love Star Wars and I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I really liked it! I don't know if I was just late enough to the game that the developers had fixed all the stuff that players complained about, but I didn't really have many issues with it. No Force usage, no lightsabers, sure, but the thing about Star Wars is that there is room for so many stories to be told that don't directly involve the Skywalker family. I really liked Kay Vess and her little space puppy. I had fun sneaking around and trying to avoid detection. I enjoyed the reputation system revolving around the biggest crime syndicates in the galaxy far, far away. I was secretly hoping that "Outlaws" would be one of my top games and was really glad to see that it was. I also picked up and completed all of the DLC missions, so if you were ever wondering what it would be like to play Lando Calrissian in Sabaac, have I got some stories for you!
- Disney Dreamlight Valley: Sixty-eight hours of "Dreamlight Valley" is going to look weak next year, I tell you! With the final days of my paternity leave in early January, I put in WORK on DLV, but those stats will have to wait until the end of 2026 to manifest themselves. The most impressive thing I can say about "Dreamlight Valley" is that it remains one of my top games despite already having earned the platinum trophy. Almost 70 more hours of this game and not a single trophy to show for it? That's just wild.
- WWE 2K25: Yep, back at it with the pro wrestling. "2K25" was a solid entry in the series with a more up-to-date roster at the time of its release than some of the other recent WWE games, and the game modes are fun enough to merit several dozen hours of play time. However, I dislike how much 2K wants us to play the "career" mode each year. It's my least favorite thing to do with each installment, and it seems like 2K is just doubling down on it every year, as if we think the cheesy original storylines are fun. Less of that in the future, please! But I did appreciate some improvements to GM Mode and (shockingly) the decreased load time required to boot up MyFaction mode. Thank you!!
- Blue Prince: Talk about an original game! If a puzzle and an escape room had a baby, it would be "Blue Prince." It was free for Playstation+ members and I had heard some online rumblings about it being a noteworthy release, so I figured I'd try it out. The fact that I spent 56 hours on it speaks volumes to how deep I got into it. I HAD A PHYSICAL NOTEBOOK TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAD DISCOVERED. Trial and error, trial and error, and some great successes along the way. I'm too weak of an individual to try to beat the game on its intimidating harder difficulties, but I mostly enjoyed my time in that weird old mansion, and this game will probably wind up as one of my more memorable gaming experiences for years to come.
Honorable mention: "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle," which was my #5 game when Playstation Wrap-Up first kicked off but got booted from the leaderboard by "WWE 2K25" a few days later.
Games Played:
Aside from my top five games of the year, here are a few other games that I loved in 2025:
- NHL 25, NHL 26 - New year, new hockey game. The Mammoth have arrived!
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - I'm not brave enough to go for the platinum, but a very good game with a lot of stuff to do along the way.
- Astro Bot - The continuous addition of free DLC speed run levels was a lot of fun and occasionally very stressful.
- Backyard Baseball '97 - Not as good as it was on PC when I was a kid, but a nice shot of nostalgia nevertheless.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 - THPS 4 takes me way back! I had never played THPS 3, but I always love a good shred session.
- Split Fiction - More on this later, but a really innovated and exciting game.
- The Outer Worlds 2 - One of the funniest games in recent memory. It got pushed to the backburner toward the end of the year, but I look forward to hopping back in very soon!
- Anno 1800 - I can't believe it but I finally beat the story. Good heavens, this was one of the hardest games I have ever played and I don't think anything in the world could convince me to try for the platinum.
- Sunderfolk - This was a really cool local co-op game where you and some friends can use your phones as controllers. I would have played it more often if I felt more comfortable asking my married guy friends if they could come over to play video games. Those parental responsibilities will get you, man!
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - This game basically took over at the end of the year - not soon enough to crack my top five but there's a small chance that the time I've spent playing it in January could get it high up on my list for 2026. I bought it on sale after it won Game of the Year and a ton of other awards and loved the unique, original story. (It definitely had some outbursts of profanity that caught me off guard with my wife and kids in the room, so be aware of that, but it was a very fun late-night game for dad.) The combat system was incredibly difficult to learn and master but provided some of the most thrilling moments when I finally figured out the timing and beat some hard bosses. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this in my recap for next year, so... stay tuned for that, I guess.
Trophies Earned:
Although Playstation said I earned 751 trophies in 2025, it didn't account for an additional 18 trophies earned after December 23, so my actual total for the year would have actually been 769. That's the fewest trophies that I've earned in a year since I started keeping track of my stats back in 2020, but paternity leave with three kids is way different than paternity leave with one kid - especially since the older two boys are smart enough to vote me off of the big TV from time to time.
Here's a list of all of the games for which I either got the platinum trophy or reached 100% completion in 2025:
- Sonic Frontiers - January 4
- Epic Mickey Rebrushed - January 14
- WWE 2K24 - February 2
- No Man's Sky - February 10
- Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions - February 17
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 - March 9
- Star Wars Outlaws - March 27
- Hello Neighbor 2 - April 30
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - June 17
- LEGO Movie: The Videogame - July 2
- MLB 14 The Show - July 13
- Disco Elysium - August 1
- Split Fiction - August 16
- Assassin's Creed Mirage - August 20
- NCAA Football 11 - August 25
- Stick It To the Man, 100% - November 5
- Endling: Extinction is Forever - November 6
- Assassin's Creed Shadows - November 7
Thoughts on that list:
- I played "Sonic Frontiers" mainly because my oldest son accidentally earned a trophy on my profile and I therefore felt the need to finish the game for the sake of my completion percentage. Same thing with the "LEGO Movie" game. Probably wouldn't have played either of those if it weren't for my son "helping me out." Whoops!
- I had played "Epic Mickey 2" but never the original, so I was happy when they remastered it; that was a fun game.
- "No Man's Sky" certainly deserves some credit for how much better the game has become over the years - it's basically a totally different game than what it was when it was first released about 10 years ago.
- Getting the platinum trophy for "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2" was incredibly tedious. I love that game, but I did not love that trophy list. Sheesh.
- "Hello Neighbor 2" and "Endling: Extinction is Forever" were two games that, if I'm being honest, I only played because I Googled how long it would take to get the platinum trophies and I wanted to boost my stats.
- Speaking of boosting my stats, I spent a decent amount of time cleaning up games on my old Playstation 3. I got the platinum trophies for "MLB 14 The Show" and "NCAA Football 11" but also cleaned up the original "Skyrim" (even though I made it further on the PS4 version of the game) and a "Call of Duty" game that I had never actually played. NCAA and CoD were played on my profile by two of my brothers way back when I was in college and the completion level was not good. They're looking much better now.
- "Stick it to the Man" was a free PS4 game for Playstation+ members years and years ago. I played it but didn't complete it, and I finally got around to just knocking it out so I never have to think about it again.
- "Indiana Jones" was a lot of fun. I'm a product of the '80s and love Indy, so I loved the game. I had a couple of gripes about it - one of the areas was very dark and difficult to navigate, and the collectibles were such a pain. Holy cow, I think I was missing a collectible that took me about an hour and a half to find. Horrendous. Other than that, though, really enjoyable.
- I had heard great things about "Disco Elysium." It was a very interesting game that took me a while to complete. I don't believe that I would recommend it to most of my family, friends and associates.
- I got the platinum trophy for "Split Fiction" after playing the entire game with my oldest son, who is five years old. I do not believe that the game was intended for such young players. I was so proud of him. It was extremely frustrating at times and probably took two or three times longer to beat than it would have if I had played with, say, my wife (with whom I had originally planned on playing), but the fact that I beat it with a child was a fantastic accomplishment.
- "Assassin's Creed Mirage" was great. In fact, it's probably one of my top three or four AC games of all time. I enjoyed the series reverting back to the old stealth system, the simplified controls, and the much, much, much smaller map. It only took me about 35 hours to beat, including the free DLC update that came out toward the end of the year, and I'd recommend any AC fans who were on the fence about "Mirage" to give it a chance.
In the past, Playstation has given us a monthly breakdown of top games, hours logged and play sessions, but they didn't do that again this year. Instead, they gave us some trophy milestones to sort of journal our stats throughout the year. Here's what they had for me:
...except this wasn't my latest trophy - just proof that Playstation gave up on me after December 23, frowny face emoji.
Yearly Comparison:
- 2025
- Hours played: 961+
- Top games: Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Disney Dreamlight Valley, WWE 2K25, Blue Prince
- Trophies earned: 769
- Platinum trophies: 16
- 2024
- Hours played: 1,091
- Top games: Baldur's Gate III, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, WWE 2K24, Star Wars Battlefront II
- Trophies earned: 845
- Platinum trophies: 15
- 2023
- Hours played: 1,212
- Top games: Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel's Midnight Suns, NBA 2K23, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Trophies earned: 911
- Platinum trophies: 20
- 2022
- Hours played: 1,308
- Top games: WWE 2K22, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Gotham Knights, Ghost of Tsushima, Stardew Valley
- Trophies earned: 968
- Platinum trophies: 18
- 2021
- Hours played: 1,203
- Top games: MLB The Show 21, NBA 2K21, Marvel's Avengers, Watch Dogs Legion, Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Trophies earned: 1,091
- Platinum trophies: 14
- 2020
- Hours played: 2,419 (holy crap, COVID!)
- Top games: MLB The Show 20, Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix, NBA 2K20
- Trophies earned: 1,410
- Platinum trophies: 15
Final Thoughts:
So, in the end, the combination of having growing kids and playing really long games resulted in a year with fewer hours and trophies, but that's ok. Games like "Assassin's Creed Shadows," "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," "Disco Elysium," "Anno 1800," hockey games and even "The Outer Worlds 2" all have stretches where trophies are few and far between, not to mention the 68 hours I put into earning no trophies on "Dreamlight Valley." But I had a great time playing and, perhaps, even a few less regrets about the games I've played than in past years, so that's a win, ultimately. I'll be back next year, probably even bigger and better, so I look forward to the exciting games, stories and platinum trophies that lie just beyond the horizon.
Mainly, I'm just disappointed in Playstation for not continuing to update my stats through the end of the year like they have in the past. Come on, guys. That was just lazy. Do you not really love me, after all we've been through??
Anyway, feel free to let me know what your top games were by leaving a comment below, following us on Twitter (here and here) or finding me on Facebook or some other method of communication.
Until next time!
