Metacritic has today revealed its 15th annual game publisher rankings, giving us an updated look at how the biggest publishers of 2024 performed based on critic reviews.
Nintendo wound up in 22nd place out of the 37 publishers in this year’s list which, considering it landed in sixth place last time, is quite the tumble. The Big N took home an average Metascore of 76 on its 13 releases in 2024, with no “Great” games (Metascore of 90 or higher) to its name.
SEGA came out on top in the latest list, with an average Metascore of 82.9 across a whopping 29 products (12 titles) released in 2024. Capcom, Sony and Microsoft all landed spots in the top 10, with the likes of Devolver Digital, Annapurna Interactive and Ubisoft all claiming a spot on the ladder ahead of Nintendo.
This year’s positioning is the lowest ever recorded by Nintendo in the 15 years of Metacritic rankings (its previous all-time low was 14th in 2022) and it kinda makes sense, honestly. 2024 was hardly a blockbuster year for the Big N, and despite some sweet releases like Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the middling titles like Endless Ocean: Luminous, Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Another Code: Recollection will have brought the average down.
You can find a full breakdown of the scoring system over on Metacritic along with a summary for each of the rankings. For the full list at a glance, however, check it out below:
| Ranking | Publisher |
|---|---|
| 37 | Fulqrum Publishing |
| 36 | Nacon/Daedalic |
| 35 | PQube |
| 34 | Perp Games |
| 33 | THQ Nordic |
| 32 | Humble Games |
| 31 | Atari |
| 30 | Maximum Entertainment |
| 28 (tie) | Secret Mode |
| 28 (tie) | 3D Realms |
| 27 | Bandai Namco |
| 26 | Team17 |
| 25 | Konami |
| 24 | NIS America |
| 23 | Electronic Arts |
| 22 | Nintendo |
| 21 | Super Rare Games |
| 20 | Plaion |
| 19 | Idea Factory |
| 18 | Ubisoft |
| 17 | ININ Games |
| 16 | Red Art Games |
| 15 | Digital Eclipse |
| 14 | Plug In Digital |
| 13 | Devolver Digital |
| 12 | Take-Two Interactive |
| 11 | Kepler Interactive |
| 10 | Annapurna Interactive |
| 9 | Microsoft |
| 8 | Raw Fury |
| 6 (tie) | Square Enix |
| 6 (tie) | Gamera Games |
| 5 | Focus Entertainment |
| 4 | Sony |
| 3 | Aksys Games |
| 2 | Capcom |
| 1 | SEGA |
What do you make of this year’s ranking? Let us know in the comments.
