Score aggregation site Metacritic has published its annual list of best video game publishers, a ranking based on the quality of their published titles according to the scores listed on the site. A total of four factors was considered to create the ranking: average Metascore for all games from 2023, the percentage of good (above 75) and bad (below 49) titles, and the number of great titles (above 90). Only publishers with at least five releases in 2023 were eligible for the list and mobile games did not count at all.
With everything added up, Capcom emerged as the best video game publisher of 2023 with a total score of 325.7 points. Titles published by Capcom had an average Metascore of 84.5 in 2023 with 84% being considered good and not a single one bad. What’s more, three games in the publisher’s line-up attained scores above 90 with Resident Evil 4 standing on top at 93. With Dragon's Dogma 2 receiving strong reviews, 2024 is off to a great start for the company as well.
Capcom, which was sixth in last year’s ranking, has thereby dethroned 2022’s winner Sony and claimed its second victory since the inception of the annual list in 2011. Capcom’s last triumph took place in 2019.
Last year’s winner Sony fell down to 13th with 291.4 points – which is still enough to beat its rival Microsoft at 15th and 289.1 points. The two giants are sandwiching Gearbox at 14th with 290.5 points.
Top 10 video game publishers as ranked by Metacritic
- Capcom – 325.7 points
- Raw Fury – 318.6 points
- Chorus Worldwide – 318.5 points
- DANGEN Entertainment – 316.4 points
- Annapurna Interactive – 313.6 points
- Nintendo – 312.1 points
- Aksys Games – 310.2 points
- Bethesda Softworks – 308.3 points
- Sega – 306.1 points
- Thunderful – 303.3 points
Of all 46 publishers eligible for the ranking, Perpetual landed on last place with 161.5 points. Big names in the lower half of the table include the newly independent Saber Interactive (34th), THQ Nordic (33rd), Plaion (32nd), Atari (29th), Bandai Namco (27th), Frontier and Take-Two (tied at 25th), and Ubisoft (23rd).
Koei Tecmo came 21nd, following Square Enix at 19th and Focus Entertainment at 18th. EA shared 16th place with the almost perfectly named Team17.
Historical best video game publishes as ranked by Metacritic
- 2024: Capcom
- 2023: Sony
- 2022: Microsoft
- 2021: Sega
- 2020: 505 Games
- 2019: Capcom
- 2018: Bethesda Softworks
- 2017: Electronic Arts
- 2016: Sega
- 2015: Nintendo
- 2014: Take-Two Interactive
- 2013: Electronic Arts
- 2012: Microsoft
- 2011: Take-Two Interactive
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