Best Hand Tracking and Mixed Reality Games of 2025 with Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro

The second round of UploadVR’s Best of 2025 awards has begun.

We started today by highlighting our favorite games of the year on individual platforms including Quest, PC VR, PlayStation VR2, and Apple Vision Pro. Here, we also discuss top titles in immersive entertainment other than games, aiming for an experience that is more like a movie.

Currently, we are focusing on mixed reality apps and games as developers continue to adopt this approach. We’re also taking a closer look at how best to use hand tracking throughout the year, alongside dedicated early access categories for both Mixed Reality and VR games. Most of our categories only apply to full releases, but Best Hand Tracking also considers early access releases.

Now, on to the second round. Here are our favorite hand tracking, mixed reality, and early access experiences of 2025.

best hand tracking game

Demeo x D&D is a great game, but it’s basically similar to the same experience you’ve already had with Demeo, and Dimensional Double Shift unleashes the fun of Job Simulator in multiplayer after leaving open beta. Hidden Memories of ‘Gardens Between’, ‘Banners & Bastion’, ‘Little Critters’ and ‘Pocket Lands’ all caught our eye this year.

But there is one game that stands out in 2025. It’s Jigsaw Night. Grab pieces from near or far and easily give them to your friends. You can also pick up a controller at any time and use it to grab distant objects more precisely. This strong support, along with other features such as LIV integration, colocation, and puzzles with your own photos, means that independent developer Steve Lucas’ project is an absolute joy to spend your time with, and a strong reason to carry just your headset with you.

Best Early Access Mixed Reality Game

This year we’ve seen some interesting first looks at mixed reality games in early access. Pocket Lands is a recent favorite for creating Minecraft-like worlds, and Loop One: Done is an MR automation game that records loops with drones and robots. Also keep an eye out for Super RC, Jigsaw Knight, Galactic Traffic Control, and Healer.

Now, Laser Dance has won the award for Best Early Access Mixed Reality Game of 2025. Thomas Van Bouwel delivered what we call “the first essential mixed reality game” and the go-to party game in our review. Offering an instantly relatable premise that feels like it’s ripped from a spy movie, this experience is one of the first things everyone should try when they put on a headset.

Best Early Access VR Game

Whether it’s to gather community feedback or raise critical funding, more and more developers are choosing to launch in Early Access across Quest and Steam, and there are plenty of options in 2025.

This year saw the sequel to one of VR’s early roomscale hits, Unseen Diplomacy 2, Another Axiom followed up Gorilla Tag with Orion Drift, and Final Fury continues to show promise. Rounding this out are Boxing Underdog, The Pirate: Republic of Nassau, How to God, ZIX, and Out of Sight VR.

In 2025, Forefront will be named UploadVR’s Early Access VR Game of the Year. Triangle Factory’s latest game after Breachers offers a 32-player shooter that rivals EA’s Battlefield series. “The combat is exciting and tense, the gunplay in VR is tactile and satisfying, and the environments are dynamic and engaging,” we said at the time, and we’ll keep you posted.

Best mixed reality game

As mixed reality continues to establish its foundation, interesting projects continue to emerge from around the world. What we’re seeing today feels like an early sign of what to expect in the coming years. We’re focused on games where mixed reality is a clear focus and not an optional add-on in a fully immersive game.

In Quest 3, Star Wars: Beyond Victory once again takes us to a galaxy far, far away. We explored new worlds in Mythic Realms, raised furry companions in Stay: Forever Home, and both Banners & Bastions and Table Troopers provided powerful tabletop-style thrills. Other titles include Project AEROES, BEATABLE, Crystal Commanders, Detective VR, and more.

This year’s winner of Best Mixed Reality Game is Little Critters by Purple Yonder. Following the studio’s Little Cities, we find an innovative take on the tower defense genre that puts players front and center in the battle. With its engaging gameplay that has real impact and great strategic depth, Little Critters keeps us coming back for more.

Best Mixed Reality App – Figmin XR

Apps like Pencil continue to show the potential of building from innovative ideas. Grab a good old pencil and put a headset on your head to learn how to draw Walkabout Mini Golf characters. This is very nice.

However, the award for Best Mixed Reality App of 2025 goes to the gradually improving spatial playground Figmin XR. The app won last year as well, and this year independent developer Javier Davalos essentially brought Tilt Brush to the iPhone, where he released Figmin XR. Last year, we had a very impressive colocation experience with Figmin XR, from Quest to Vision Pro.

This year, I used my iPhone to log into the same virtual room alone as my headset. I could hold digital objects by pressing my finger against my iPhone and carry them around without looking at them. Capturing mixed reality video of Figmin playgrounds from your iPhone could be a great use for this integration. You can also allow friends and family to peek into your spatial creations when you’re not using the headset.