The sandbox game was named the best Finnish game of the year at The Finnish Game Awards gala
The Finnish Game Awards 2025 honored the best Finnish games and game developers in nine categories while also celebrating the 30-year history of the Finnish game industry.
GDA Finland recognized Daria Bokovaya as the IGDA Volunteer of the Year, while the IGDA Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Christopher Hamilton. Finnish Game Jam named Ali Irdiren as the Jampion of the Year. The W Love Games Excellence Award for best indie game went to Finnish Cottage Simulator by Ranela Games. The gala also honored the winner of the Bit1 Student Game Competition 2025, Team Scavenger, known for their space station game Spaceship Scavenger.
The Rookie of the Year award was presented to Hanki Games, known for their snowmobile game Sledders. The Best Creative Achievement of the Year went to Tensori for their atmospheric and enigmatic game Pools.
The Power Player of the Year award was presented to Ilkka Paananen, founder of Supercell, for his lifetime achievements in the Finnish Game Industry.
The main award of the evening was the The Finnish Game of the Year 2024. This year board decided to present the award also to runner ups. Third place was shared by three games: Lego Hill Climb Adventures by Fingersoft, Finnish Cottage Simulator by Ranela Games, and Squad Busters by Supercell. Second place went to Supermoves by Makea Games.
The main award, Finnish Game of the Year, was presented to Pax Dei by Mainframe Industries. The winner, Pax Dei is known as a vast, social sandbox MMO game. It draws inspiration from the legends of the medieval era, where myths are real, ghosts exist, and magic is unquestioned. In this massive open-world playground, players choose their roles and immerse themselves in the game world alongside thousands of other players. The player explores the world, builds a home, establishes a reputation, and crafts their own stories.
“This year’s gala was a bit unusual,” noted Joni Lappalainen, Chairman of the Board at the Finnish Game Developers’ Association. “Finland is globally recognized for its mobile games, but in 2024, only a handful of new mobile titles were released. All the winning games this year were published for PC and/or consoles. The fierce competition in the gaming industry is also evident in the fact that Makea Games, the developer of Supermoves, which placed second for Finnish Game of the Year, was unable to continue operations despite having created a great game. We’re also seeing the rise of a unique domestic simulator game culture in Finland. This year, Finnish Cottage Simulator, created by a small team from Jyväskylä, took home two awards following in the footsteps of Pro Pilkki, My Summer Car, and other distinctly Finnish simulators. The gala also celebrated 30 years of the Finnish game industry. A ceremonial speech was delivered by Ilari Kuittinen, founder and CEO of Housemarque, the oldest active game studio in Finland and the event’s main sponsor.”
The nominees, runner ups and winner of the Finnish Game of the Year 2024 were selected through a member vote conducted by the Finnish Game Developers’ Association. The vote included over 70 commercially released Finnish games in 2024. All the winners and links to the winning games can be found in the list below.
The 2025 game gala is sponsored at the platinum level by Housemarque, at the gold level by Small Giant Games, and at the silver level by 10tons, Colossal Order, Fingersoft, Kuuasema, Metacore Games, Metaplay, Next Games - A Netflix Game Studio, Supercell, and Ubisoft RedLynx.
The Finnish Game Industry 2024 report, to be published by Neogames in the fall 2025, will offer more insight into the state of the industry. Preliminary results suggest that year 2024 was overall a better year for the Finnish game industry than the somewhat downbeat year 2023