There are only a few days left before the end of 2025. It seems that we have to draw an end to the year without waiting for the official announcement of "Half-Life 3". However, everyone can still replay the previous games in the series, and judging from the current situation, many players are indeed doing so while waiting for official news about the sequel.
This conclusion comes from data released by the game length statistics website HowLongToBeat. This website is an authoritative platform for checking game clearance time. At the end of each year, it releases various game lists to show players' annual play preferences. One of the 2025 lists focuses on retro games that players can revisit. The first two works in the "Half-Life" series have both successfully made the list.
To be in the top ten of HowLongToBeat's retro games list, a game needs to be at least 20 years old. This also means that "Half-Life 2", whose release time in 2004 just reached the selection threshold, successfully won the top spot in the retro game play list in 2025. I guess many players are playing the first two games in the series back-to-back, because while the sequel topped the list, the original Half-Life also ranked sixth on the list, just a few spots away from the top.
According to the selection rule of "sold for more than 20 years" on the list, games released in 2005 were eligible for inclusion for the first time in 2025, and the first-generation "God of War" released that year also successfully ranked among the top ten. Perhaps like us who have been waiting for the new "Half-Life" game, the players of the "God of War" series have also turned to revisiting the old games in the series because of a long-lost Metroidvania spin-off.
In addition, the launch of "Metal Gear Solid 3: Remastered" seems to have led to an upsurge of players reviewing the previous games in the series. The first two works in the series also made it onto this list. "Metroid Prime" is also among them. This is probably because players are preparing for the release of "Metroid Prime 4", but it may also be that some players who don't like the latest game in the series want to relive the past glory of the series by revisiting old works.
The last four spots on the list are occupied by "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City", "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", "Final Fantasy 7" and the original "Final Fantasy". I guess these two works of "Grand Theft Auto" will most likely be on the list all year round. The inclusion of "Final Fantasy 7" on the list is not surprising. After all, the launch of the remake trilogy has made it more popular nowadays; and the original "Final Fantasy" can take the second place on the list with its extremely high number of plays, and become the earliest game released on the entire list (a full decade earlier than other games on the list). This is undoubtedly a heart-warming and amazing surprise.