Japanese developer Square Enix has topped Metacritic's 2026 Game Publisher rankings. Ever since 2010, this yearly chart ranks the best game publishers according to the following four factors:
- (1) Average Metascore for all games released in 2025
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore) - (2) % of scored products with good reviews (Metascore of at least 75)
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points) - (3) % of scored products with bad reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower % is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points) - (4) Number of "great" titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a 90+ score
This year, for the first time in the history of Metacritic's Game Publisher Rankings, the winner is Square Enix. The studio managed to improve its average Metacritic score by five points (from 79 to 84) compared to the previous year, when it was ranked sixth, securing positive reviews for all its 2025 releases, including SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, Octopath Traveler 0, and the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
The second spot was taken by Gamirror Games, formerly known as Gamera Games, which co-published many well-received indie games, chiefly Absolum. The third place went to CAPCOM, which has been on a streak over the past few years. Indeed, it's the publisher's third consecutive year in the Top 3, and it very nearly reached second place, missing out only by 0.2 points. Only a single game release wasn't rated positively: the PC remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, which launched in May 2025 to an average Metacritic score of 70.
And the rest? Well, Microsoft is the first of the truly big ones, ranking #5 thanks to titles like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, The Outer Worlds 2, and the PS5 releases of Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The only letdowns were Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and the Indiana Jones: The Order of Giants DLC.
Take-Two ranked 6th, SEGA 7th, EA 8th, Ubisoft 11th, and Nintendo 12th. Sony is out of the Top 20, ranking #21 due to the poor reception of Midnight Murder Club, Lost Soul Aside, and some Destiny 2 expansions.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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