The 2025 Game Awards nominations have been announced, and — as usual — the community is abuzz. There are predictable disputes about snubs and debates over whether titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should be considered indie. Yet some of the most puzzling choices appear in the less prominent categories. The Best Mobile Game nominees this year, in particular, expose fault lines in how the show evaluates and selects contenders.
Best Mobile Game has long been an oddfit at The Game Awards. In its early iterations the category quietly blended mobile and handheld releases, producing matchups such as Fire Emblem Fates versus Pokémon Go. The arrival of the Nintendo Switch in 2017 shifted that balance, opening space for smaller premium and independent experiences to receive attention — think Hidden Folks and Old Man’s Journey sitting alongside Super Mario Run.
Over the years the category’s composition evolved again. By 2020 we began seeing mobile adaptations of major franchises — titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and Pokémon Café Mix — and the trend continued into 2021 with entries such as League of Legends: Wild Rift and Pokémon Unite. That period also marked the rise of gacha-driven releases: Genshin Impact ultimately took the prize, and NetEase’s Marvel Future Revolution made waves. Purely premium mobile games or smaller indies have grown scarce among nominees, though exceptions exist — last year’s Balatro was notable because its mobile version followed an already-successful release on other platforms. At the same time, IP-heavy gacha spin-offs like Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis continued to earn nominations despite mixed critical and commercial responses.
Image: Kuro Games via Polygon
The 2025 Best Mobile Game shortlist crystallizes those shifts: every nominee is a free-to-play release, many of them gacha adaptations of established franchises — including spinoffs tied to series like Destiny and Persona. The list even re-nominates the popular gacha title Wuthering Waves, which was eligible and lost last year. Perhaps most surprising is the inclusion of Sonic Rumble, Sega’s new multiplayer effort that launched to largely negative user reactions on Steam because of its monetization approach, though its aggregate rating has since moved to “mixed.” Collectively, the field reads as a roll call of the most visible, heavily marketed mobile launches of 2025, rather than a cross-section of the year’s strongest mobile design.
That impression isn’t for lack of quality mobile games being released. This year delivered inventive puzzle and indie fare such as Is This Seat Taken?, Spooky Express, and Lok Digital. Streaming and subscription services also contributed standout entries — Netflix brought Monument Valley 3, and Apple Arcade rolled out a fresh Skate City alongside the delightful Puffies. Other notable releases included Merge Maestro, Expelled!, The Art of Fauna, and Pup Champs, plus new mobile iterations of beloved properties and strong ports of hits like Dredge and I Am Your Beast. In short: outside the biggest budget earners, the year was rich with interesting mobile experiences.
There are plausible reasons the nominees skew the way they do: localization constraints affect what reaches different markets, and gacha titles enjoy sizable followings in many regions that contribute to The Game Awards’ voting. Still, the final five choices give the impression of a jury that may lack deep familiarity with the mobile landscape. To observers who follow the platform closely, the shortlist feels narrow and, at times, inattentive to the breadth of noteworthy releases.
Image: Draknek & Friends
This is not an isolated issue. Other specialized categories often reveal similar blind spots. Last year’s absence of the successful and well-reviewed EA Sports College Football 25 from Best Sports/Racing raised eyebrows. The current Best Strategy/Simulation slate includes the divisive Civilization 7 while overlooking heavyweights like Europa Universalis V and Anno 117: Pax Romana, both of which enjoy stronger critical standing. Likewise, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was omitted from Best RPG despite excellent reviews. The more expert you are in a subgenre, the more omissions you’ll notice.
At this stage in the show’s history it’s clear that the global jury model — nominations determined by input from more than 100 outlets worldwide, including Polygon — isn’t flawless. The same cohort that weighs in on Game of the Year isn’t necessarily the ideal panel to evaluate technical audio work or niche formats like VR. The organizers have experimented with specialist juries for categories such as esports and accessibility, which suggests precedent for more targeted expertise.
Perhaps adopting an Oscars-style structure with smaller voting branches would improve outcomes. A Best Mobile Game jury composed of mobile-focused publications, creators, and analysts could better identify outstanding design across monetization models and release formats. That kind of vetting would likely broaden the nominee pool and make the awards feel more rigorously considered rather than a collection of last-minute selections squeezed between trailers.
Of course, this presumes The Game Awards aims to be a purely critical arbiter. In practice the show often behaves more like a pop-culture showcase — an event that elevates whatever titles dominate the conversation. If you accept that the ceremony prioritizes mainstream visibility and zeitgeist over specialist adjudication, nominations such as Sonic Rumble become easier to understand.
Source: Polygon
