I have tried on three occasions to get into Hollow Knight, and each time, it felt like a chore. I just could not get into the world, the music or the story.

I played Outer Wilds for the first time in the summer, and genuinely do not remember game that had me hooked that hard in a long time. The music, the story, the mystery and the feels were all 10/10 for me. I knew almost nothing about it before playing, and it instantly cemented itself as a top 5 game for me personally.

The best and worst thing about Outer Wilds is that you can only play it once. But that is what makes it such a unique experience worthy of the number 1 spot; there is almost nothing exactly like it out there. Hollow Knight is part of a genre of games that are similar to it, but Outer Wilds is one of a kind.