Welcome to the final entry in UploadVR’s 2025 Best of VR Awards.
As the year draws to a close, we’re once again celebrating the year’s best releases across the VR and broader XR industry, highlighting some exceptional releases across both software and hardware. As always, each category features one clear winner and a varying number of honorable mentions. With the exception of certain early access categories, all winning titles are currently released in full.
Similar to last year, we have split the awards into multiple rounds. For the first round, we covered our favorite platforms: Quest, PC VR, PlayStation VR2, and Apple Vision Pro, and added our favorite exploration experiences. This is where we recognized Ghost Town, Roboquest VR, Arken Age, Gears & Goo, and The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up.
Round 2 focused on mixed reality, hand tracking, and overall early access release results. Winners in these categories were Jigsaw Night, Laser Dance, Forefront, Little Critters, and Figmin XR.
With this, we still have the biggest picks left, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. This is UploadVR’s Best of VR Awards 2025.
Best Virtual Places 2025
The few software packages in virtual reality have grown so large and diverse that it is no longer appropriate to call them games. These are vast places with interconnected systems, and spending meaningful time there has become a joy for many. VRChat and No Man’s Sky come to mind as future candidates for this category, both of which were considered to create this award category with UploadVR.
Walkabout Mini Golf was named one of UploadVR’s Best Virtual Places of 2025.
In 2025, Walkabout has grown from a game to a place as mini-golf takes a backseat as the perfect place for people to gather in virtual reality.
The Mighty Coconut artists kicked off the year by recognizing Elvis as a plaything, and ended it with the best physical illustration of Alice in Wonderland ever created. In between, Walkabout’s creative director and mastermind Lucas Martel has taken golfers to the seat of the gods on Mount Olympus, come face-to-face with dinosaurs at Raptor Cliffs, sneaked into a Mother Goose-inspired theme park in a forgotten fairyland, and gotten up close and personal with Neko Atsume’s kittens throughout mini-Tokyo. Walkabout’s courses have always had secrets like hidden balls and skeletons, but now they’re starting to add playable activities like slingshots and chess. Designers continue to rip around the backstage area, adding foundations for future activities and discovering new secrets in locations players have visited hundreds of times.
The design team spent a few days together in December to outline the course that will launch in 2027. Since the release of standalone VR headsets in 2020, we’ve seen other developers follow the precedent set by Walkabout, including paid add-on guest mode, default private rooms, and single controller support.
Whether you want to be introduced to virtual reality or just want to get lost in virtual reality for days, Walkabout Mini Golf is the right onboarding experience for most people and the perfect place to be.
Best VR Developer Award
There were some impressive creations from VR developers this year. Mighty Coconut continues to release regular DLC courses for Walkabout Mini Golf, Flat2VR Studios continues to deliver impressive VR adaptations like Roboquest VR, and nDreams Elevation and Fireproof Games both demonstrated strong VR-focused gameplay design with Reach and Ghost Town, respectively.
This time, the Best VR Developer award goes to VitruviusVR for their work on Arken Age. Previously, when we presented the Best PlayStation VR2 Game of the Year award, we discussed what we love about Arken Age and praised its exemplary approach to VR-first gameplay design. However, it is a testament to the studio’s strength that it has achieved this while effectively leveraging the strengths of each platform. That’s why we give them this year’s award.
Best new hardware
This year, Meta ended its third consecutive year of releasing new VR headsets, Apple upgraded its “spatial computer” with new chips and straps, Samsung launched its first products running Google’s Android XR, and Bigscreen improved its ultralight headset with improved adjustable lenses.
Bigscreen and Apple aren’t our winners, but they’re worth mentioning here.
While Beyond 2’s lenses fix serious flaws in the original and make the optical experience accessible to a far wider audience, the device still requires a SteamVR tracking base station. This expensive technology is something Valve itself is abandoning.
Meanwhile, the M5 Vision Pro’s dual knit bands are a truly innovative approach to headset ergonomics, combining the benefits of comfortable soft straps and balance into one design, plus the ability to tighten both bands with a single dial. However, others can be upgraded with minimal effort.
This year’s winner is the Meta Neural Band that comes with the Meta Ray-Ban Display. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is not an entirely new input technology, but the Meta Neural Band brings it to a sleek, lightweight, flexible wristband with all-day battery life and IPX4 water resistance.
Meta Neural Band makes controlling your smart glasses HUD practical and comfortable without having to constantly use voice commands, wear giant rings, or wave your hands. This achievement earned it the Best Hardware of 2025 award.
Best new multiplayer game
Social gameplay remains one of VR’s most appealing strengths, and we continued to see strong contenders this year. Many multiplayer games have launched or finally reached full release, although Breachers would have been a contender if it wasn’t in Early Access.
For racing fans, the VRacer Hoverbike has been fully released and now reaches a new platform. Pixel Dungeon was an early highlight, and Glassbreakers brought us back to the world of Moss. Titan Isles is a highly engaging co-op adventure. Then there’s Deadly Delivery, Table Troopers, Elements Divided, GRIM, and Rogue Piñatas.
In the end, the winner for VR Multiplayer Game of the Year in 2025 was Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. Resolution Games has brought back their 2021 hit in style. We thought it was “almost a natural crossover and a fitting evolution” of Demeo. If you can’t get into a real tabletop campaign, this is a great option that also lets you get involved with a flatscreen player.
Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked Review
Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked is almost a natural crossover and a worthy evolution of VR tabletop RPGs.
2025 VR Game of the Year
So we move on to one of the biggest categories. Previous awards have been for games on individual platforms across Quest, PC VR, PlayStation VR2, and Apple Vision Pro. This is what we believe to be the absolute best of the best of all four.
2025 is another year of seemingly endless releases, especially in recent months. Hotel Infinity, Roboquest VR, Marvel’s Deadpool VR, Demeo x D&D, Ghost Town, Reach, Arken Age, Lumines Arise, there are many choices, but only one title can be crowned in the end.
Just like our best PlayStation VR2 games, our 2025 VR Game of the Year winner is Arken Age. Ghost Town and Roboquest VR each have their own strengths on Quest and PC VR, but Arken Age graces each platform with some of the best VR-focused design we’ve seen in 2025.
“Arken Age offers clever, VR-first gameplay design for a great sci-fi adventure,” we said at the time, praising its vivid presentation and challenging combat. As mentioned above, our appreciation for VitruviusVR’s action-adventures has only grown since its launch, making it a strong choice regardless of headset.
Arken Age review: Satisfying sci-fi adventure with great VR design
Arken Age offers a satisfying sci-fi adventure with a clever VR-oriented design, and is currently available on PlayStation VR2 and Steam.
Most anticipated games of 2026
So what’s next? 2025 will see a strong lineup for Quest, PC VR, and PS VR2, and 2026 will see a number of promising VR and MR games.
Some games are already in early access and are currently scheduled or likely to be fully released next year. This includes Unseen Diplomacy 2, Into The Radius 2, Bootstrap Island, Laser Dance, Pocket Lands, and Forefront.
VR adaptations of existing series are also in the works, including Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections, The Boys: Trigger Warning, Little Nightmares VR, and Orcs Must Die!. Written by The Blade. Then we have Guardians Planetfall, Knights of Fiona, Automa, Aces of Thunder, and Remnant Protocol. There are many potential candidates, but what is the best candidate?
The most anticipated game of 2026 is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City, an action-adventure that supports single-player and up to four-player co-op. We’ve already gotten a quick look at what’s to come, and we can’t wait to see how Cortopia Studios adapts this iconic series for Quest 3 and PC VR.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City, home sewer experience
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City makes you want to live in the sewers.
