At the GAM3 Awards 2025, the web3 gaming landscape took a moment to reflect, celebrate, and reward innovation with a prize pool of $7 million.
Off the Grid, a high-end shooter game from Gunzilla Games, took top honors, including Game of the Year. It also won awards for best action, best shooter, best esports, and best multiplayer game. The title has been downloaded more than a million times, and it has 5,000 to 8,000 players on Steam at any given time.
Held on November 21 in Manila and broadcast globally, the event marked the culmination of a year of rapid growth and considerable progress. Presented in partnership with Yield Guild Games (YGG), the ceremony acknowledged excellence across 21 categories, spotlighting not just games, but creators and entire ecosystems.
The live event spanned two hours and brought together developers, content creators, and community members. It was a chance to showcase the achievements of the past year and to underline how much the web3 gaming sector has matured. Each winner emerged from a field of well-regarded finalists, signalling both strong competition and genuine recognition of meaningful contributions. I was one of the judges.
The 2025 Winners
- Best Sound Design: The Bornless
- Best Art Direction: Project O
- Best Esports Game: Off The Grid
- Best Mobile Game: Pudgy Party
- Best Rpg: Maplestory Universe
- Best Strategy Game: Parallel
- Best Action Game: Off The Grid
- Best Casual Game: Pudgy Party
- Best Sports Game: Fifa Rivals
- Best Adventure Game: Eve Frontier
- Best Card Game: Project O
- Best Shooter: Off The Grid
- Best Content Creator: Cagy
- Best On-Chain Game: Cambria
- Best Ecosystem: Ronin
- Games’ Choice: Gigaverse
- Best Browser Game: Pixels
- Best Multiplayer Game: Off The Grid
- People’s Choice: Sunflower Land
- Most Anticipated Game: Atia’s Legacy
- Game Of The Year: Off The Grid
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A historic prize pool and strategic partnerships
This year’s GAM3 Awards featured a prize pool exceeding $7 million, a record amount that underscores the organisers’ ambitious vision. Rewards included grants, marketing support, infrastructure services, and blockchain resources.
High-profile partners such as Forkast, Magic Eden, Hyperplay, Sequence, BGA, Amazon AWS, and AD Gaming provided the bulk of these resources, helping to accelerate development and expand opportunities for emerging studios.
In addition, the event secured backing from top-tier sponsors such as OpenSea, Sui, Arbitrum, Aptos, and Remix. Their involvement not only increased the scale of the awards but also reinforced a shared commitment to the long-term growth and legitimacy of web3 gaming.
Selection process: Expert panel and community voice
The GAM3 Awards 2025 jury was made up of more than 80 industry leaders, bringing together figures from both traditional gaming and blockchain-based games. Notable names included Jamie King, co-founder of Rockstar Games, as well as executives from major studios and companies such as Krafton, Konami, Sony, Ubisoft, Google, Amazon, Animoca Brands, Immutable, and Avalanche. Media voices from outlets like GamesBeat, Decrypt, and Cointelegraph also contributed to the judging process.
Much like previous years, the voting process saw the jury’s votes represent 90% of the final decision, with the community making up the remaining 10% for most categories except People’s Choice and Best Content Creator, which were both 100% community voting-based, and Games’ Choice, which is based on shortlisted game studios voting for their favorite title game.
The GAM3 Awards 2025 became a showcase for the wider ecosystem. More than 250 attendees participated in-person, and viewers around the world saw exclusive gameplay reveals and world premiere trailers. It was not just a competition, but a celebration of innovation and momentum.
The organizers said the event reinforced the idea that Web3 gaming is moving into a more mainstream, mature phase. With major investment, high-profile partners, and a growing stable of talented creators, the industry is clearly building for the long run.
With the conclusion of this year’s GAM3 Awards, expectations are already building for the next edition. The organizers have indicated that the event will return in November 2026, promising another opportunity to honour the best in Web3 gaming. As the ecosystem continues to evolve, the awards may play an increasingly important role in highlighting new talent, encouraging innovation, and strengthening the infrastructure required to sustain growth. Gam3s.gg, the organizer of the awards, is a Web3 gaming app with more than 1.5 million registered users.
The YGG Play Summit where the awards took place is the largest player-focused web3 gaming event in the world. It is being held in Manila in the Philippines on November 18-22.