This year, several PC games struggled significantly with optimization issues, leaving players frustrated with subpar performance despite visual appeals. In this article, we review the most poorly optimized games of 2025 and their impact on gamers.
Problematic Releases in 2025
At number seven, Rise of the Ronin faced issues with its ultra settings, demanding excessive GPU power. Tuning down to High Settings offered some relief, but expectations were higher given the game's graphics.
Keeper by Double Fine showcased a stunning art style but struggled to perform well even on powerful hardware like the NVIDIA RTX 5090. Running at native 4K, achieving 60 FPS required dropping settings to Medium.
Floating at position five, The Outer Worlds 2 suffered significantly with ray tracing enabled, causing severe gameplay slowdowns. The game operated inefficiently with its CPU, relying on only 3–4 cores, which wasn't ideal for its open-world design.
Top Challengers for Worst Optimization
At number four, Borderlands 4 was nearly the worst, but a recent update slightly improved performance, especially for the 8GB VRAM cards. Yet, maximum settings still demanded too many resources, leading to persistent gameplay stutters.
Monster Hunter Wilds, developed on the RE Engine, suffered from poor performance across platforms. Although Capcom released a patch, the game's demanding requirements and poor run quality persisted, awaiting broader updates.
The Year's Worst Performance
The runner-up, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 experienced severe stuttering throughout gameplay. Only small hotfixes were released rather than comprehensive patches, resulting in unplayable conditions and low sales.
The title for the worst-optimized game of the year goes to Oblivion Remastered, developed by Virtuos. Plagued by shader-compilation and traversal stutters, it faced numerous visual glitches. Despite its remarkable visual upgrade, players experienced a barrage of technical problems, with no significant updates since April.
In summary, while some games like Build A Rocket Boy and Echoes of the End made substantial improvements that led to their exclusion from this list, others remained notoriously problematic with limited fixes on the horizon.
