It hurts to admit, but it feels like this particular list’s days might be numbered.
It’s not that there isn’t plenty to discuss. There was always going to be a lot to say about the console market in 2025, as each of the three traditional big players threw its marketing focus behind at least one new piece of machinery. And yet it seems increasingly likely that one of those three will move out of the console market altogether before long, and with last-gen development support appearing more nebulous by the month, it’s perfectly possible that within two years I’ll only have two relevant console platforms to talk about.
Nonetheless, we’re still doing this, and any discussion about the videogame console market in 2025 simply has to address the gigantic elephant in the room: cost. Here in Australia, every major console you can buy is now more expensive than it was this time last year (except, if you want to be technical, for the PS5 Pro and all models of the original Switch). Two of the major brand subscriptions are also more expensive than this time last year, and while these costs are still dwarfed by the eye-watering sums in the PC market right now, the fact remains that current-gen console gaming costs more in real-money terms than it has in a long, long time. So these ecosystems need to make themselves worthwhile, and regardless of their popularity, the following is my take on which ones did that the best in 2025.
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VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
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5. Xbox One
LAST YEAR: 5th
So last year I said I’d probably never put the Xbox One on the main list again, but that was based on the PS4 showing much more relevance to casual players. In 2025 the PS4 got almost nothing new, while at the very, very least the Xbox One picked up some of the sprinkles from Microsoft’s attempt to justify its big Xbox Game Pass price increase. So it just hangs on as a result of my desperate attempt to keep this countdown at full top five status.
4. Nintendo Switch
LAST YEAR: 2nd
The original Nintendo Switch falls to its lowest position ever as far as this tiny list is concerned. This is mostly because Nintendo had something a little more pressing to focus on through 2025, but the Switch did get some pretty fabulous exclusives* (read: not on Playstation or Xbox consoles) this year, so the relatively strong performance of the other two major console platforms also plays a role.
The excellent Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition led the way as the best Nintendo-exclusive game without a bespoke Switch 2 version, but it was followed mighty closely – in both quality and release timing – by never-ending tactics/visual novel fever dream The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. The earlier Donkey Kong Country Returns HD faced some critical heat for its nip-and-tuck choices, but the older brother Switch had its biggest moment in the final third of the year, when perfectly fine versions of Hades II, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond graced the library of the elder statesman. A few notable indie productions picked the Switch as their sole console platform, too, such as the charming While Waiting and the excellent Simogo Legacy Collection, and that all added up to a pretty decent year – just not quite with the same standalone shine as in recent times.
3. Playstation 5
LAST YEAR: 1st
In terms of a piece of hardware, the Playstation 5’s 2025 was ultimately defined by the first full year on the market for the rather ambitious “Pro” model, and after a rough first couple of months where many games saw no improvement and a few somehow looked worse, the PS5 Professional began to deliver early in the year when it became the only way to get a decent frame-rate on console for Monster Hunter Wilds. Hot on its heels, Assassin’s Creed Shadows – an impressively-optimised game in general, it must be said – packed a set of truly game-changing ray-tracing features on the Pro that brought the game’s gorgeous natural environments to life. Other highlights throughout the year included Kingdom Come Deliverance II, the late port of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Battlefield 6; sadly the beefed-up Playstation was ultimately no match for the Unreal Engine 5 obstacles we touched on earlier this week, but it did its best to minimise the stuttering dramas.
The console-exclusive games also delivered: even if this was one of those down years for Playstation quantity, the quality was certainly there for Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, and Lumines Arise. The Playstation Plus Extra tier continued to sweep up the odd prestige indie-style game missed by Xbox Game Pass, chief among them the wondrous flow-state merchants Sword of the Sea and Skate Story. Finally, the Playstation Portal’s overseas functionality improvements were only implemented in Australia with considerable limitations, but it is still a slightly better device in 2025 than it was in 2024. I think it’s fair to say the PS5 overall had a pretty good time this year.
2. Xbox Series X|S
LAST YEAR: 3rd
This entry becomes a trickier writing challenge every time I attempt it.
Following two years that could most charitably be summarised as “uneven”, during which the Xbox brand as we all know it crashed, burned, and warped tortuously into something unrecognisable, Xbox boss Phil Spencer and his formerly chatty PR team wisely decided to spend most of 2025 out of the spotlight with their mouths shut, surfacing only for heavy-hitting showcases and the odd major podcast to explain big news as clearly as possible. That left less oxygen for misinformation this time around, but that was cold comfort when so much of the big news was bad.
The Xbox won’t be a “box” for all that much longer it seems, and not even Xbox’s original idea for a dedicated portable console survived to reach the market; instead admittedly strong handheld PC makers ROG spun up a partnership to produce the impressive Xbox Ally. As Windows continues to provide a sea of asterisks for PC gamers, Game Pass and its funky new pricing structure are now effectively the only unique offering Xbox brand can offer as a standalone entity: beyond that it’s essentially now a third-party publisher.
But if Game Pass is the new Xbox, and we have to move the goalposts to even have a list this year, well then it had a cracking 2025.
The subscription service came out of the blocks strongly enough, packing Eternal Strands, the shadow-dropped Ninja Gaiden II Black, and Avowed to provide some real meat to chew on in the quieter months. But the six-week period from early April to mid May was quite possibly the best for Game Pass in its entire history: South of Midnight into Blue Prince into Oblivion Remastered into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 into Revenge of the Savage Planet into Doom: The Dark Ages was the videogame equivalent of a luxurious all-you-can-eat banquet, and I for one couldn’t fit in another bite. The banquet did return again with a blockbuster October that saw Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, Ball X Pit, and The Outer Worlds 2 all release within barely two weeks of each other, although by then the Ultimate tier that guaranteed all those day-one hits had shot up in cost so substantially it genuinely felt like Microsoft didn’t want people choosing their premium option anymore.
Within weeks FBC: Firebreak, Rematch, and Mecha Break reminded us all that games don’t have to be free-to-play in order to have a PvP moment in the sun; Heretic + Hexen, a bunch of Warcraft remasters, Gears of War Reloaded, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, and the quaint Retro Classics app brought an unusually strong nostalgic focus to the service, and that once-famous ability to snare an armada of critically-praised “indies” returned in earnest: Hollow Knight Silksong led the way, of course, but when you also include the likes of The Alters, Citizen Sleeper 2, Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and the console port of 1000x Resist on day one, you are emphatically back in form. Xbox has promised “75+” new day-one releases for Game Pass Ultimate in 2026, which is a significant increase over recent years; let’s hope they deliver, because the mainstream goodwill is now almost completely gone.
1. Nintendo Switch 2
LAST YEAR: N/A
A bit of an easy winner, really; and it’s almost a shame given how good the other two current-gen platforms performed (in their own ways) in 2025. But by the guidelines of this list, it’s just so difficult to beat a brand-new console with a fresh set of gimmicks and games, especially if it releases before the year is halfway done and has the time to build up a nice early library. I’ve written way too much about the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025 (four articles, in fact), and there isn’t really anything more to say that hasn’t already been covered, so I’ll just mention that I spent more time on the Switch 2 this year than any other platform, then point you to those articles and perhaps sign off this decade-long list – at least in its traditional Top 5 format – for the final time.
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Honourable Mentions
–Playstation 4
Sure it’s nice to have a proper honourable mention for once, but as covered above, not much went on with the PS4 this year.
Vagrant Rant 