episode

Ben, Matt, Steve, and Joshua Rivera recap an eventful year in video games by summing up the overall quantity and quality of games released in 2025, identifying both naughty and nice trends in the industry, and drafting their favorite titles across several categories.
Host: Ben Lindbergh 
Guests: Matt James, Steve Ahlman, and Joshua Rivera 
Producer: Isaiah Blakely 
Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell

Ben is a writer, podcaster, and editor who covers culture and sports. He hosts ‘Effectively Wild’ at FanGraphs and previously wrote for FiveThirtyEight and Grantland, served as editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus, and authored ‘The MVP Machine’ and ‘The Only Rule Is It Has to Work.’

Ben Lindbergh

Joshua Rivera is a Philadelphia-based culture writer whose work has appeared in GQ, New York, Vanity Fair, Polygon, and others. You can follow him at @jmrivera02.

Joshua Rivera

Matt has been creating original art for The Ringer since 2017. In addition to his design responsibilities, he is a regular guest on the Button Mash podcast and a writer on the topic of video games.

Matt James

Steve joined The Ringer in 2019. He is a producer, host, and lover of all things fandom. He’s been fortunate to be able to write, produce, host, and participate in some of the podcasts on the Ringer Podcast Network, which have been some of the best experiences of his career!

2025 Games of the Year Draft

Hosts

About the episode

Summary