The year is winding down, which means it’s time to look back on the games that were released this year. In this list, we rank all of the major sports games of 2025 from worst to first and crown our 2025 Operation Sports Game of the Year.
The Annual Game Duds
It’s no surprise that the bottom of this list contains a lot of annual releases. Often criticized by fans as a genre, the ones that iterate the worst are always strong contenders for flop of the year:
Football Manager 26: Declaring a game the worst of the year is always a bit nebulous because tastes may vary, but as far as disastrous receptions go, it’s hard to look past Football Manager 26. With the prior year’s edition cancelled and a new engine to debut, there was more on the line than perhaps any annual franchise release in recent years, and so far, the feeling remains that FM 26 feels like a long beta for an FM 27 that could be good on these bones.
NHL 26: In a theme that will remain consistent across many of the early entries on this list, EA Sports NHL 26 was another NHL game. If you haven’t bought a new hockey game in a while or don’t have one in your collection at all, this game will offer fun pretending to be Nikita Kucherov or Connor McDavid, but if you bought this last year, there’s not much demanding a re-up here.
EA FC 26: Once embroiled in a heated battle with Pro Evolution Soccer, the EA FC series is now a poster child for the stagnation that occurs in sports franchises when they no longer have anything to compete with. Once again, FC 26 saw a focus on Ultimate Team to the detriment of all else, while the gameplay itself struggled with fans not enjoying the feel of players on the pitch.
Madden NFL 26: Arguably the king of the annual sports franchises in America throughout sports gaming history, like EA FC the Madden franchise has suffered for its loss of competition and now muddles along in a familiar pattern: sell a whole lot of copies, face criticisms of not doing enough to justify all those sales that already happened, prepare to do the same next year.
WWE 2K25: The WWE 2K series is not a flawless one, but it does understand one key advantage it holds: if you’re going to be accused of being an annual roster update, it helps to have an extremely expandable and customizable roster. This year’s edition was not a perfect release, but there was enough meat on the bone in the form of enjoyable gameplay, innumerable wrestlers to choose from, and various match styles to keep things fun and fresh for quite some time.
The Middle Of The Pack
Not every game is a resounding success or a total catastrophe. These games were mixed bags, with some positive elements and some areas for obvious improvement
Rematch: Rematch is a hard game to slot on this list, as there are compelling arguments to be made for moving in either direction. On the one hand, an actual soccer take on Rocket League is an idea so obvious that it’s a little wild it took so long, and it arrived with decent hype and fun play. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the sharp drop in players over its opening month, which does
.skate: Fans of skating games are so desperate for more that there’s a throwback waiting higher on the list, but .skate’s arrival has felt underwhelming. Fans did not love the decision to go free-to-play, and it has failed to lock down a player base in the way developers had hoped.
NASCAR 25: Here at Operation Sports, we were a little more positive on NASCAR 25 than the overall consensus, with the game’s handling and control a notably positive experience out on the racing loops of America. While it wasn’t quite enough to let it climb to the top of the real-world racing list on our charts, it is close enough that you can probably make your choice on which type of racing is more appealing to you.
F1 25: A solid entry in the series, F1 25 just took on a more important role in the series with the announcement that it will remain the current edition for an additional season as Codemasters opts to use a two-year cycle and skip F1 26. While it’s not breaking massive new ground,, the driving is solid and the F1 movie tie-in adds the fun option to play as Brad Pitt in a Grand Prix season.
Kirby Air Riders: If 2025 sports video gaming was defined by anything, it was by franchise karting games. While Kirby Air Riders is the first of three such games to make its way onto this list, that still makes it one of the more well-received sports games this year. With a unique style of racing executed well, it is a solid addition to your gaming collection.
NBA 2K26: The complaints around 2K26 are familiar to fans of any big studio annual game, with game modes inclined to dip in your pockets prioritized over those that don’t. That said, the gameplay itself has been broadly popular, and the overall experience remains on the high end of the annual sports game grouping, leaving it high on the list for 2026.
College Football 26: When this beloved college sports franchise returned last year, it did so in as friendly an atmosphere as you could ask for, with fans eager for another chance to play with their favorite school, and rode that enthusiasm to much acclaim. This year, it’s back to being just one year later, however, and it’s struggled a bit with fans as a result, but not enough to not still be near the top of annual releases.
PGA Tour 2K25: Perhaps the most well-received annual game here on Operation Sports, the praise for PGA Tour 2K25 was generally widespread. 2K’s VC-greed is still there, making leveling up your Pro a frustrating experience, but the golf itself is spectacularly handled to create a golf game that feels great and offers plenty of ways to increase the challenge as you go by adjusting aides and sliders.
The Top Contenders
Rounding things out with the smash hits that fans loved, there are some clear common ties among games that reached this upper level:
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds: The next popular franchise to see a new edition in its racing series, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds was a popular new entry in the genre. Featuring the beloved cast from Sonic games duking it out, a franchise whose hero is all about going fast, is such a natural fit for a racing game, and this one gave fans everything they could have hoped for when it dropped earlier this year.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 & 4:There may not be any bigger indictment of how less-than-thrilled fans are with annual releases than going “forget it, just actually give us the old game again” has proven to be such a success for the THPS franchise. In a year, EA tried to release the skating game of the year with something new, but it was something old that actually took the crown.
MLB The Show 25: An annual franchise is always going to be facing some challenges when it comes to staking its claim as a top game of the year. While a framework to build on is helpful, the annual cycle limits what changes can be made and how enthusiastic fans can be when they arrive. Some franchise has to do it best, though, and this year it was MLB The Show 25, giving fans the most to be excited about.
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road: An anime-inspired JRPG about soccer may not have seemed like a strong contender for the best sports release all year, but this game was a massive success. The story mode is engaging, while the game mechanics are deep enough to satisfy number-crunchers and earn a silver medal finish.
Mario Kart World: There are few franchises that hold so much universal acclaim across their runs as Mario Kart, which has been a must-have game across nearly every Nintendo console ever released. This year’s edition was in the unique place of following a game so popular it outlived its first console to become the karting game of choice for both the Wii U and Switch. On the one hand, this meant fans were itching for something new; on the other, it meant following a game that fans still loved 11 years later. Fortunately, World lived up to the hype, and is our 2025 Operation Sports Game of the Year!
This was our call, but everyone has their own thoughts on the best games. What was your best and worst sports title in 2025?
