Sega was the top-rated publisher of 2024, at least according to Metacritic, the popular website used for collecting reviews and providing score averages.
Metacritic published its ranking for video game publishers in 2024 on Wednesday, with the website providing details on which companies had higher average scores for games over the course of the calendar year.
Metacritic distributed points to each tracked published based on how well games reviewed, while also giving bonuses for things like games scoring at a “90” average or above.
Sega’s success was thanks to a number of titles, particularly the acclaimed role-playing games Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Metaphor: ReFantazio which were developed by its Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Atlus subsidiaries, respectively.
The immediate-runner up for last year? Capcom, which Metacritic crowned the winner for 2023. Capcom’s strong slate continued in 2024 with games like Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Sony grabbed fourth place, bolstered heavily by the success of Team Asobi’s Astro Bot, which has gone on to win Game of the Year at the Game Awards 2024 and the 28th D.I.C.E. awards.
It’s worth noting that titles released under Bungie and PlayStation Studios were both counted for Sony, since Bungie is a subsidiary that still publishes games separately from PlayStation Studios.
Microsoft was in ninth place, with the company releasing a number of well-regarded games such as MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as well as Treyarch and Raven Software’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
In a similar vein as Sony, Microsoft includes all of its subsidiary publishing labels, meaning Metacritic included Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Activision Publishing, and Blizzard Entertainment all under one banner.
Nintendo can be found at #22, with the company a fair bit lower than usual thanks to not having a ton of huge titles last year. This is almost assuredly due to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, for which Nintendo is likely prepping a number of larger games.
An interesting assortment to look through
I’m often cautious of reading too much into review scores — despite having to score games when I review them, I’m just not a fan of distilling things down to a pure number — but I do think this is interesting data to check out.
Sega is objectively doing extremely well with its Japanese brands right now, and the output of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio in particular is just incredible to behold, with the developer putting out new Like a Dragon games at practically a yearly clip without an apparent dip in quality.
Capcom is similarly maintaining a hot streak it’s mostly kept up since 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard revitalized the survival-horror franchise. That isn’t likely to stop this year, especially since Monster Hunter Wilds just arrived to excellent reviews.
Will Sega and Capcom pull a double act and take the top two spots on Metacritic for 2025? I have no clue, but I’m looking forward to finding out in a year.
