It’s that time of the year when you say goodbye to one year and welcome another, all within the space of a day. While the outgoing year, 2025, will be remembered for many things — such as big-budget Hollywood flicks, the ICC Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup — it will also be remembered as the year the Pakistan cricket team won a tri-nation tournament at home, the young guns won the Emerging Asia Cup and the country’s finest e-sports professional, Arslan Ash, kept the national flag flying high by securing multiple EVO titles abroad.
So, what does the new year bring for those waiting impatiently for it and how could it be better than the preceding 12 months? Let’s try to analyse that by going down memory lane as well as chalking out a list of events that might shape a better 2026.
Why 2025 was a memorable year
The departing 2025 will be remembered for many things, both good and bad. Let’s talk about the good stuff first, which was topped by cinema, namely Hollywood films. The year saw the return of fan favourites Superman, The Fantastic Four and Captain America, which was followed by the first-ever The Minecraft Movie and the dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Rebirth.
Not only did the live-action versions of Lilo & Stitch, The Smurfs and How to Train Your Dragon wow audiences, but so did late releases like Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash. As for animated films released in cinemas, nothing bettered Zootopia 2, which is still running successfully in cinemas all over the world. Yes, the live-action version of Snow White might have bombed at the box office, but Thunderbolts and Karate Kid: Legends did impress those who have been following the franchise.
It’s time to look back at the moments that defined 2025 and look ahead to what 2026 promises to bring, from sports and cinema to global events
The year 2025 will always be remembered as the year of KPop Demon Hunters, which made a stunning debut in cinemas and is now among the most-watched movies on Netflix. Not only did it introduce viewers to Korean culture, but it also made them aware of what demons are and how they can be hunted — with a little help from the musical side.
Pakistan in sports during 2025
As for sports, the Pakistan cricket team may not have managed to win either the ICC Champions Trophy or the Asia Cup, but it did break the jinx of not winning a trophy at home by defeating Sri Lanka in the final of the tri-nation series, which also featured Zimbabwe as the third team.
Also, Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel found a place at number nine in the ICC Test rankings, Babar Azam remained at number six among ODI batters, while Sahibzada Farhan ended the year in the top five T20I batters in the world. The presence of left-arm spinner Noman Ali at number four in Tests, Abrar Ahmed at number nine in ODIs and number four in T20Is, capped a good year for the Greenshirts.
Besides cricket, Pakistan had an impressive year in other sports. Javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem won gold at the Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea, and another at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, e-sports professional Arslan Ash became the only player in history to win EVO championships on three different continents — Asia, North America and Europe. His wins at EVO France and EVO Las Vegas during the year helped him take his total EVO title count to seven, which is a major achievement.
On the international tennis circuit, it was a year Novak Djokovic would like to forget, as he failed to add to his tally of 24 Grand Slam titles for the second year running. Like 2024, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner ended the year with two Grand Slam titles each, with the former winning the French Open and the US Open, and the latter claiming the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
In the women’s category, each Grand Slam had a different winner, with the Australian Open going to American Madison Keys, the French Open to Coco Gauff, also an American, followed by Polish Iga Swiatek and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who won Wimbledon and the US Open respectively.
Get ready for 2026!
Moving on to the next year, you have everything to wish for. From the Football World Cup in the American peninsula to the battle of the T20I World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, followed by much-anticipated Hollywood films, the year will bring so many treats that you might forget the dates if you don’t write them down. That’s why we bring you a list of these events in a way that betters your 12 months instead of ruining them.
Your favourite characters return to the big screen
If you thought 2025 had the best films, think again, because 2026 will make you forget the previous year in no time. After all, how can the blockbusters of the preceding year match the might of He-Man, who returns to the screen for the first time in nearly four decades in Masters of the Universe on June 5, or the return of Supergirl on June 26, who also makes her first big appearance in a solo film since the 1980s?
The year will not just bring a new adventure of the world’s most famous webslinger in Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31, but also the next Avengers film, Avengers: Doomsday, which is slated for December 18. With The Super Mario Galaxy Movie making its appearance on April 3 and The Mandalorian and Grogu gracing the screen on May 22, it will surely be a year with more flavour than ever before.
The fun doesn’t stop here. Toy Story 5 will get a worldwide release on June 19, Minions 3 will hit cinemas on July 1, followed by the live-action version of Moana on July 10, the back-from-the-dead Coyote vs. Acme on August 28, and The Cat in the Hat on November 6.
Also slated for release in the winter of 2026 is a Jumanji sequel that will bring together the two universes — the Robin Williams one and the Dwayne Johnson one — followed by The Angry Birds Movie 3, which hasn’t disappointed in its previous outings.
Football action around the year
The FIFA World Cup will head to the American peninsula during the summer, with the USA, Canada and Mexico jointly hosting the event from June 11 to July 19. Not only will it be the biggest World Cup ever, with 48 teams instead of the traditional 32, but it will also mark the first time since 1994 that the USA hosts the event, the third time for Mexico after 1970 and 1986, and the first-ever time for Canada.
While the host nations automatically qualified for the mega event, it will be a World Cup debut for Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan, the first four nations to benefit from the team expansion. Lionel Messi will be leading defending champions Argentina for the last time, although he had announced his retirement after lifting the trophy four years earlier. Whether fan favourite Cristiano Ronaldo can give Portugal the same joy Messi gave Argentina in 2022 remains the big question.
Who will rule the cricketing world?
Before football fever grips the globe, cricket hysteria will take centrestage during the Men’s T20 World Cup, to be played jointly in India and Sri Lanka during February and March. Since India refused to tour Pakistan during this year’s Champions Trophy, Pakistan will play all its matches in Sri Lanka, adding an interesting touch to the hybrid model initially proposed to appease India.
As many as 20 teams will take part in the mega event, in which 55 matches will be played across three stages: a preliminary stage, a Super Eight stage and the final stage, with the winner taking the trophy home. India will be the defending champions, while other teams will look to stake their claim as well.
The Women’s T20 World Cup will take place after the Football World Cup and will be held in England and Wales during July and August. Although the event will feature 12 teams instead of the traditional 10, the number of matches will be fewer and the duration shorter. While New Zealand will hope to defend their title, other teams will aim to use English conditions to the best of their abilities to become world champions.
The global sporting calendar doesn’t stop there, as the Winter Olympics and Paralympics will also take place in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina. While the Winter Olympics will be held in February, the Paralympics will take place a month later at the same venues. That doesn’t mean athletes from the Summer Olympics will stay idle throughout the year, young athletes will get a chance to win gold, silver or bronze medals at two events: the Commonwealth Games, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 2, and the Summer Youth Olympics, scheduled for October 3 to November 13 in Dakar, Senegal.
The Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4 will also see many athletes in action and who knows which future superstar might be born during these events.
Will Djokovic make history?
One question on every tennis enthusiast’s mind in 2026 will concern Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who needs just one more Grand Slam title to reach the unthinkable number of 25. He will have four chances throughout the year, the same as his younger rivals who denied him titles at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open over the past two years.
It would be fitting if he wins one more title and bids adieu to the game, as that would mark the end of tennis’s most successful era, dominated by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, two of whom are already enjoying retired life.
And finally… the Pakistan Super League
Finally, let’s talk about Pakistan’s biggest cricket event, the Pakistan Super League, which will enter its 11th year in 2026. Played from March 26 to May 3, it will feature some of the greats of the game, including South Africa’s Faf du Plessis and England’s Moeen Ali, alongside many local stars who have made the league one of the best in the world.
Published in Dawn, Young World, December 27th, 2025
