Metacritic has announced the best game publishers of 2024 as part of its 15th Annual Game Publisher Rankings. Revealed on the official website, publishers like NACON, Bandai Namco, Plaion, and Digital Eclipse are included.
Which game publishers released the best games in 2024? For the 15th consecutive year, we sifted through 12 months of data to determine the best and worst game publishers of the year, based solely on the quality of their 2024 releases. Sales and user reviews do not factor into these rankings; only critic reviews (as captured by each game’s Metascore) are used to evaluate performance.
Publishers are ranked from 37 to number 1 based on a specific points system. The four factors the Metacritc game publisher rankings are based on are as follows:
- Average Metascore for all games released in 2024
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore) - % of scored products with good reviews (Metascore of at least 75) – 100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)
- % of scored products with bad reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower % is better) – 100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)
- 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
For those who want to know the top 10, you can read on and find out. It’s a prestigious class to be in, and also an honour. Metacritic is an established website, and being in the list is a proud accomplishment to have. Anyway, here’s the top 10:
10. Annapurna Interactive
9. Microsoft
8. Raw Fury
6. Square Enix and Gamera Games (tied)
5. Focus Entertainment
4. Sony
3. Aksys Games
2. Capcom
- SEGA
It’s not a huge surprise SEGA has done this well, and last year showed why. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance did the publishers wonders. It is the third time the company has come out on top, and there seems no signs of stopping just yet.
