Arc Raiders put Sweden back in the spotlight at The Game Awards 2025 in Los Angeles on 11 December, winning the show’s Best Multiplayer prize while French RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept the top honours, including Game of the Year.
The 12th annual ceremony, hosted by Geoff Keighley and staged at the Peacock Theater, has become a key global showcase for both mainstream releases and smaller studios looking for international visibility.
Arc Raiders wins best multiplayer and boosts Embark’s profile
The Stockholm-based studio Embark Studios collected the Best Multiplayer award for Arc Raiders, a competitive shooter that has grown into one of 2025’s most discussed live titles.
In his acceptance speech, Embark art director Robert Sammelin thanked players for supporting the game: “Your love and your commitment mean everything to us. Thank you.” The moment mattered beyond one trophy: it signalled that Sweden’s talent pipeline can still deliver standout multiplayer design in a market dominated by global publishers and long-running franchises.
Embark, founded in 2018 by industry veterans including Patrick Söderlund, has positioned itself as a new hub in Stockholm’s long-established shooter ecosystem, which includes several developers and specialists with backgrounds in major AAA productions.
The midnight walk adds a Swedish win in VR/AR
Sweden’s presence at the ceremony was not limited to competitive multiplayer. The Midnight Walk, made by MoonHood and published by Stockholm-based Fast Travel Games, won the award for Best VR/AR.
The title has attracted attention for a distinctive visual approach that draws on physical, hand-crafted models and stop-motion-inspired animation, translated into a digital world through 3D scanning. That aesthetic has helped it stand out in VR, where many releases still struggle to balance technical constraints with a strong artistic identity.
For Fast Travel Games, the win reinforces a strategy focused on “core” VR experiences rather than short demos, at a time when the platform is still trying to broaden its audience beyond early adopters.
Battlefield 6 audio award underlines the DICE legacy
A third win connected to Sweden came in the category of Best Audio Design, awarded to Battlefield 6.
The Battlefield franchise is developed under the Battlefield Studios umbrella, which includes the Swedish studio DICE. The audio award is a reminder of the technical craftsmanship that has long been associated with Sweden’s biggest AAA teams, even as newer studios like Embark compete for attention with smaller, more agile productions.
Why Sweden keeps showing up on global gaming stages
Sweden has spent the past two decades building a dense ecosystem around Stockholm and other hubs, combining major studios, smaller independents and specialised suppliers.
That clustering effect matters: it supports rapid hiring, frequent collaboration and the transfer of know-how across companies. In practice, it means talent can move between AAA teams and newer studios without leaving the country, while still targeting global audiences.
This year’s results also showed the competitive nature of that landscape. Hazelight, the Stockholm-based studio founded by Josef Fares, received multiple nominations for Split Fiction but did not win.
A French record-holder still defined the 2025 ceremony
Even with several Swedish highlights, the night belonged to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by France’s Sandfall Interactive and released in April 2025.
The game won Game of the Year and finished the ceremony with nine awards, a record haul that underscored how a debut title can break through with a strong art direction, narrative focus and an ambitious RPG structure. Accepting the top prize, game director Guillaume Broche credited “the people who make tutorials on YouTube” for helping the team learn the craft.
The combined picture from Los Angeles was clear: while big international hits can dominate the headlines, Sweden continues to deliver winners across multiple categories—from mainstream multiplayer and technical audio design to VR/AR innovation—strengthening its reputation as one of Europe’s most influential game-making countries.
