Welcome back #datafam, and we hope you had an awesome holiday taking a break from the hectic life, spending quality time with your family and friends.. and of course some time playing your favorite video games! And we would totally love to hear all about it in this month's new challenge to start the year 2026 fresh!

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For those who come after

If you've missed The Game Awards (a.ka. Oscars of the video games industry) in December 2025, you can still catch up on the recording over here. But let's catch you up. as the biggest talk of the town in that award ceremony is how the amazing team at Sandfall Interactive clinched very well-deserved NINE (yes, 9!!!) awards including the most prestigious of it all - The Game of the Year.

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If you love narrative and cinematic experience (which I'm sure most of us at datafam since we do a lot of data storytelling ourselves 😂), this game has the stamp of approval from Team #GamesNightViz (especially Louis - who is obssessed with it, for a good reason). But of course, this wasn't the only game that mattered in 2025. In fact, it is widely considered as one of the best in video gaming history with games like Monster Hunter Wilds, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Arc Raiders, Split Fiction and more.

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But we want to hear it from you #datafam! For this month's challenge, all we ask is for you to create a visualization of what games you've been playing in 2025. Or jump straight into your favorite game or what you played during the holidays. We listen and we don't judge. Can't wait to see what everyone comes out with! 😉

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📂 If you need a headstart...

This month, we’re diving back into the games you played during the holidays, and if you've played any of the 2025 releases.

• Steam Replay
• PlayStation Wrap-Up
• Nintendo Wrapped
• ‍Clair Obscur Skill Scaling & Collection (Source: GameFAQs)
• Clair Obscur Sentiment (Source: DavMrc)
• Hades 2 50+ Fear Spreadsheet (Source: Reddit)
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (Source: Toshio Riko)
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Wiki (Source: Inara)
• Death Stranding (Source: Wiki)
• #GamesNightViz Starter Kit

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Or choose one of the data sets from the #GamesNightViz Data Archive 💾 And of course, feel free to bring your own data! If you find anything interesting, we'll love to know about it too!

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🎮 Cheat codes for you to get started

If you don't know what to visualize or analyze, pick one from this list to get your creativity powered up:

• What genres dominated the year?
• Do critics and award panels agree?
• Are indie games punching above their weight?
• What platforms and studios consistently show up?

… or show us what defined gaming in 2025. But here's some inspiration from the community to get you started!

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🏆New badges to collect 'em all!

We are continuing our initiative of certifying your participation in the community project through issuing an unique digital footprint, which you can add to your LinkedIn profile too 😉 We also looking at retrospectively awarding for past Season 2 challenges!

Also, the team will also pick their top favorites to award an additional badge which is as prestigious as it looks!

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We can't wait to see what everyone comes out with! 💖

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How to Submit

• This challenge will run for two months, because telling a great story takes time (we know!) so we will be running this through 🔔 End of Feb 2026 🔔
• Post your submissions on Twitter with the hashtag #GamesNightViz and tag the team @WJSutton12, @datavizlouis, @techgirltips so we don't miss your great work!
• Submit your work the project tracker here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMRc4dJ089gPvHMtFVPZ7DVgcwrqqxkonffLF5apAZOzFX3A/viewform