2025 Games of the Year Draft | Button Mash

The Ringer-Verse

The Ringer

Tv & Film

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2025

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. (00:00) Intro(3:35) Overall Quality of 2025 Games(8:35) Naughty and Nice Industry Trends(43:32) Games of the Year Draft Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Matt James, Steve Ahlman, and Joshua RiveraProducer: Isaiah BlakelyAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Did you know that scientific studies have found most people lie once every 10 minutes?
0:08.2	In my new podcast, Truthless, I'm talking to people about the lies, they tell,
0:14.6	from faking illnesses in high-pressure moments to making up stories on national TV.
0:21.8	From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Brian Phillips.
0:26.5	Listen to Truthless on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:34.7	This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
0:41.7	With Shopify, 2026 is the year you make it happen.
0:45.3	It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person.
0:49.7	Plus, with marketing built-in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to.
0:53.7	Join the millions who've already made the leap,
0:56.5	like Jim Shark and all birds,
0:58.6	and ring in the new year with Shopify.
1:01.7	Sign up for your £1 per month trial
1:04.1	at Shopify.com.ukau.ukesl. Spotify.
1:29.4	Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom.
1:34.7	I am Ben Lindberg, senior editor for The Ringer, and by default, buttonmash host of the year.
1:35.7	Congrats to me.
1:40.5	Joining me, however, are a few folks who are in contention for co-hosts of the year.
1:45.2	First, a man who's well qualified to weigh in on the games of the year because he played almost all of them. For the last time in 2025, I'm rolling out the welcome Matt to say,
1:51.4	welcome Matt to Ringer Deputy Art Lead. Matt James. Hey, Ben, happy to be back. Happy to stop
1:58.5	obsessively trying to play everything before this episode well yeah
2:04.6	there were only about 20,000 games released on Steam this year I don't know how close
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.