A cricket game lives or dies by whose faces are in it. Dream Cricket 2025 starts from the licences: more than 400 officially licensed players, rendered as 3D avatars, running from Gautam Gambhir, Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar to Suryakumar Yadav, Jonny Bairstow, Andre Russell and Sam Curran. Robin Uthappa is among the first player rewards you unlock, which tells you the calibre of the dressing room.

The licences extend to the competitions. New Zealand and Afghanistan are among the partnered international teams, and the T20 shelf includes the International T20 League, Super Smash, Legends League Cricket and the Lanka Premier League. In Dream Team mode the squad is yours to run: appoint the captain, set the strategy and make the calls on the field, whether that means protecting a chase or throwing the ball to your strike bowler for one more over.

On the pitch, the numbers are generous — over 450 batting shots and 200 bowling actions, backed by proper ball physics. Batting comes down to timing and shot selection; bowling is about reading the batter and mixing it up, ball after ball. Matches run as real-time multiplayer: 1v1 ranked and unranked games in the Dream League, friendlies through Play with Friends, and World Championship Match of the Day challenges where the side with the most runs takes it.

The presentation gets the full treatment too: custom kits, big stadiums, and Hindi and English commentary from Jatin Sapru, Deep Dasgupta and Ian Bishop, with emotes for celebrating wickets and boundaries. One fair note from its own numbers: at 3.5 stars the crowd is split — the licensed star power lands, even if the game does not please everyone.