Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sweeps Gaming World After Historic Game Awards Domination
The French turn-based RPG made history at The Game Awards 2025, winning nine awards including Game of the Year, shattering the previous record and cementing itself as one of 2025’s most significant releases. What started as a debut title from rookie studio Sandfall Interactive has evolved into a cultural phenomenon that’s reshaping industry expectations for indie games.
Following its record-breaking night at The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is seeing a significant player resurgence on Steam, with the game previously peaking at over 145,000 concurrent players in May and averaging between 15,000 and 20,000 players at peak times over the last month. The Game Awards victory sparked renewed interest from both newcomers and returning players eager to experience what critics are calling one of the generation’s defining RPGs.
The game sold 1 million copies in three days and more than 6 million copies by the end of the year, extraordinary numbers that place it alongside major AAA launches. By October 2025, the game had sold over 5 million copies worldwide, with Xbox Wire reporting the game was the biggest third-party title launch on Xbox Game Pass that year.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 received universal acclaim from critics and attained the highest Metacritic userscore rating of all time. Creative director Guillaume Broche announced a new free Thank You content update featuring a new playable environment, new music tracks, challenging boss battles for late-game players, an official Photo Mode, and quality-of-life improvements, rewarding the passionate community that propelled this Belle Epoque fantasy to unprecedented heights.
Have you experienced Expedition 33 yet, or are you jumping in after the Game Awards buzz? What aspect of this indie darling excites you most?
