Xbox Makes Metacritic’s Top 10 Highest-Rated Publisher List

Review scores are often make or break for video game companies, and with this in mind, Metacritic has released its 15th annual publisher ranking.

In the top 10 for 2024, Microsoft is ninth on this ladder with Astro Bot publisher Sony in fourth spot. Taking out first is SEGA (jumping from ninth place) with games like Metaphor: ReFantazio, and dethroning Capcom who recently released Monster Hunter Wilds.

While Microsoft’s might not seem quite as impressive, its gaming division (including Xbox) has actually jumped from 15th place last time around, although Bethesda was ranked separately in eighth position last year.

Here are the full rankings as revealed by Metacritic this week:

1. SEGA (325.5 points) – average Metascore of 82.9
2. Capcom (323.1 points) – average Metascore of 82.1
3. Aksys Games (318.1 points) – average Metascore of 78.8
4. Sony (314 points) – average Metascore of 80.9
5. Focus Entertainment (309.6 points) – average Metascore of 79.1
6. Gamera Games (303.5 points) – average Metascore of 80.2
7. Square Enix (303.5 points) – average Metascore of 78.5
8. Raw Fury (301.1 points) – average Metascore of 78.5
9. Microsoft (301 points) – average Metascore of 79.4
10. Annapurna Interactive (298.7 points) – average Metascore of 79.2

And here’s what Metacritic had to say about Xbox’s first-party releases specifically:

It was Microsoft proper that was responsible for the company’s highest-scoring 2024 release, a new Switch port of the one-time Xbox-exclusive RPG adventure Pentiment. Bethesda saw great success with its Indiana Jones game, while the highest-scoring 2024 titles from Activision and Blizzard were Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and World of Warcraft: The War Within, respectively. Microsoft’s overall lowest-scoring title of 2024 belonged to Bethesda: It was the expansion Starfield: Shattered Space.

Xbox is likely set to climb this ladder again with sure-fire hits on the way such as DOOM: The Dark Ages, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 and Gears of War: E-Day, so it’ll be interesting to see how the rankings look over the next few years.

Microsoft’s new strategy to release more games across platforms has already paid off as well, making it the most-successful publisher in the world in December, ahead of companies like EA.