If we’re plotting out the year based on unexpected obsessions, mine were (in no particular order) weird Italian genre cinema of the 60s and 70s, an unhealthy appetite for unnecessarily elaborate physical media collector’s editions, folk horror in literally any form I could consume, and, apparently, No Man’s Sky. According to Steam’s usual end-of-year thing, the exploratory space sim is by far my most played game of 2025, accounting for – somewhat incredibly – nearly 20 percent of my total playtime.
That’d seem like a lot for any game, but it feels especially surprising given No Man’s Sky is on the cusp of its tenth anniversary, meaning I’ve somehow been tootling away in its procedural universe for the best part of a decade. That’s quite an achievement; I genuinely cannot think of a single other thing that’s held my interest for so long – apart from maybe Carl Poppa, but that’s a weird musical anomaly even I can’t adequately explain.
Carl Grimes’ rhymes aside, it really has been a banner year for No Man’s Sky, with developer Hello Games continuing to let its fancy run wild as it fills in the universe-sized gaps around its space sim’s ambulatory core. Back in January, the happy wanderers and sightseers among us got significantly more dramatic, realistic terrain generation to admire, as well as gas giants and ocean worlds. And nearly 12 months on, I still don’t find those fathomless, watery depths of suffocating darkness and unseen horrors any less terrifying – which I very much consider a win.
And things only got wilder from there. Never in a million years would I have expected ‘being able to dig up prehistoric fossils and turn them into skeletal museum displays’ to be on my 2025 No Man’s Sky bingo card, but that’s exactly what March’s paleontology update brought. Even now, I find myself making a quick stop-off when I spy a fossil bed, determined to collect ’em all. Then, of course, came the real banger: the ability to create fully customisable multi-crew spaceships. People went wild for this one, building everything from spacefaring Homer Simpsons to flyable floating cities – and No Man’s Sky celebrated its highest Steam player count since launch as a result. My ship building efforts, if you’re curious, stalled at ‘unwieldy toaster’ but it’s my unwieldy toaster and I love it all the same.
All this stuff’s been great – and No Man’s Sky’s recent The Game Awards win for Best Ongoing Game
Attribution
Somewhere along the way, No Man’s Sky has, I think, become my comfort game, a calming digital respite – with its peaceful seclusion and ambient procedural beats – from whatever bullshit the world’s got in store for us next. And as much as I enjoy the busy buzzing of Hello Games’ peripheral additions, I love the fact the simple, soothing act of wandering – of gentle traipsing and languid laser pointing – has, when you really break it down, stayed at No Man’s Sky’s heart. I’m currently working through the Expedition events I missed earlier this year, and squished so close together, there’s little hiding that they’re essentially the same thing repeated again and again. But I don’t care; it’s another excuse to log on and amble with vague purpose, so I fire the next one up and I’m in my happy place again.
Recently, I had a lovely time putting the finishing touches to my long-in-the-works desert base, mooching around planets and collecting resources before heading home to unleash the full force of my decorating prowess, happily lost in a revery of rug placement (the base looks great, by the way, but I wouldn’t recommend visiting in a storm if you value your framerate). And still Hello Games continues to fill in the spaces around me in wonderfully unexpected ways. The studio’s next big thing, Light No Fire, draws tantalisingly closer, but whatever that means for No Man’s Sky, here’s to another year of wandering through this most unpredictable of space sims.
This article is part of our end-of-year series, Games of 2025, where we talk about great moments, great games, and our personal favourites of the year. You can read more in our Games of 2025 hub. Thank you for reading, and happy holidays!