Continuity and iteration is something we’re familiar with in gaming. Sequels often dominate the release schedule, which is certainly a trend for the best video game movies of the year, where the majority are the second season of a previous hit adaptation. But unlike 2024, this collection of the best game adaptations of 2025 – which also consists of just live-action – has also had some notable theatrical releases, even if they might not be exactly what you’re expecting.
But then that’s also the definition of an adaptation. It’s not about slavishly imitating the aesthetic, setting or story of what you’ve played but also translating it to another medium in creative ways, even if some of those choices can be divisive. Still, from family entertainment to horror to the post-apocalypse that can be a source for hard-hitting drama as well as absurd comedy, and this year’s gaming adaptations certainly aren’t lacking in variety. 2026’s slew of upcoming video game movies already has some large boots to fill, but let’s stay focused on the finest game adaptations of the past 12 months.
5. Until Dawn
Distributor: Screen Gems / Sony Pictures Entertainment
Unless Bandersnatch-style audience interaction could be implemented in theaters, adapting Supermassive’s choice-based cinematic horror sleeper hit to the big screen was always going to be tricky without it just being reduced to another teen slasher.
Until Dawn then takes the gamble of a new gimmick where a group of unlucky teens find themselves getting picked off by a masked assailant only to find themselves trapped in a time loop where the night begins again with a new threat. It may not be the smartest meta-commentary of horror when compared to Scream or Cabin in the Woods, but its likable cast (which includes Peter Stormare reprising his role as the psychologist from the game) and humor ensures this is still a bloody entertaining time.
Distributor/Streaming service: Peacock
With all the prestigious PlayStation adaptations, one based on a vehicular combat game that hasn’t had an entry since the PS3 was probably not on anyone’s bingo cards, but its first season in 2023 proved that the post-apocalypse can be blood-soaked campy fun that fleshes out its source material in surprising ways. It also turned out to be merely the build-up to the actual Twisted Metal tournament itself that’s the focus of Season 2.
While a no-holds-barred demolition derby with wildly unhinged characters like a game-accurate Raven and clown-masked Sweet Tooth, Anthony Mackie’s fast-talking amnesiac ‘milkman’ John Doe stays a rootable and grounded center among the action-packed carnage of the Fury Road-style death races. It may not win awards or critical acclaim, but it’s definitely Twisted Metal, and that’s what counts most.
3. A Minecraft Movie
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Turning Mojang’s all-time bestselling game with its signature blocky aesthetic into a live-action movie seemed like a recipe for disaster. Yet far from a cynical cash-in, Jared Hess, director of cult indies like Napoleon Dynamite, and Jack Black, no stranger to gaming adaptations, imbue A Minecraft Movie with more genuine personality than your run-of-the-mill CGI-driven fantasy adventure. It may spend too much screentime setting things up in the real world and its female cast is underdeveloped, but once in the Overworld it’s as playfully irreverent as the game that still somehow manages to appeal to young fans and to a wider audience who don’t know their Creeper from their Piglin. That the film led to viral rowdy audience outbursts that Warner Bros. then decided to officially sanction with ‘meme-a-long’ Block Party screenings means you could even call it a modern-day Rocky Horror Picture Show, if it has any staying power.
2. Fallout Season 2
Distributor/Streaming service: Amazon Prime Video
Given that Fallout topped our best gaming adaptations of 2024 list, it’s not too surprising to see Fallout season 2 place highly here. The bigger surprise is that Amazon has managed to turn around this big budget adaptation in just over a year after its previous season.
But while the first season did an incredible job of setting up an original story with vault dweller Lucy’s emergence into post-apocalyptic LA, Season 2’s change of locale to New Vegas makes it a love letter to the game series’ fan-favorite entry. It’s then a real ‘made by fans for fans’ adaptation with everything from Deathclaws to Sunset Sarsaparilla to Mr. House being the scariest man ever. But once again, the show’s standout is Walter Goggins’ Ghoul, as are the flashbacks that show us the events leading up to the world becoming a nuclear wasteland. Our Fallout Season 2 review sings its praises plenty if you want to read more.
1. The Last of Us Season 2
Distributor/Streaming service: HBO Max
As an adaptation of the first half of The Last of Us Part 2, fans would already know what would await them, but even that still doesn’t stop gaming’s equivalent of The Red Wedding from being so brutally uncompromising when it happens at the end of the second episode of Season 2. It’s also, however, a more divisive adaptation compared to Season 1’s treatment of the first game, including the decision to shift some plot revelations earlier.
An episode directed and co-written by Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, while the most heartbreaking of the season, also doesn’t quite match the masterclass of Season 1’s ‘Long, Long Time’. Yet it’s anchored by the infectious chemistry between Bella Ramsey’s Ellie and a terrific Isabela Merced as Dina, providing a source of joy amidst a harrowing journey from Jackson to Seattle. The question that remains is whether it’s strong enough to keep us waiting for the second half of this story in Season 3.
We’ve ranked the best movies of 2025 for your viewing pleasure.
