Games worth
the hours.

Critic score 91. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 84. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

House House made Untitled Goose Game, and this is only its third game after Push Me Pull You.

Panic said it sold one million copies in its first week, and that doesn't count the players who claimed it through PlayStation Plus.

Critic score 90. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 94. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

A small studio's breakout. No track record yet, which the score accounts for.

Tied for the year's highest score in press roundups and called 2026's sleeper hit.

Critic score 89. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 90. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The 89 ties Three Houses for the second-best Metascore in Fire Emblem history, behind only Awakening's 92.

It debuted at number 2 on the UK chart behind Marvel's Wolverine and physical copies sold out at major retailers, though Nintendo hasn't shared a sales number yet.

Critic score 87. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 83. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

From the studio behind the modern Hitman trilogy.

Passed 4 million copies, a record launch for the studio.

Critic score 88. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 82. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Edmund McMillen made The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy, and co-creator Tyler Glaiel worked with him on The End Is Nigh.

Co-creator Tyler Glaiel said it sold 1 million copies in its first week, and it peaked at 115,428 players at once on Steam.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 86. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Capcom's recent run (Resident Evil, Monster Hunter) revives a series dormant for 20 years.

Sold 1M copies in 24 hours, per Capcom.

Critic score 87. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 87. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The Coalition has held the series since Microsoft bought it in 2014 and made Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.

It peaked at 31,517 concurrent players on Steam on launch day, about three times the Gears 5 peak of 10,196, and sat at No. 1 or No. 2 on Amazon and Best Buy for Xbox.

Critic score 85. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 87. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

A brand-new series, from the publisher on the best run in games right now.

Sold 1 million in two days and 2.5 million in about three months.

Critic score 82. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 92. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

It's Nintendo's own first single-player Splatoon spin-off.

It sold 474,684 physical copies in its launch week in Japan and debuted at No. 1 on Famitsu.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 81. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Capcom's Stories spin-offs are well liked, and Monster Hunter Stories 2 sold 2.5 million copies.

It peaked at 54,778 players at once on Steam, a record for the Stories series and about 20,000 more than Stories 2, though Capcom has not announced sales.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 83. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

TT Games has made LEGO games for two decades, including The Skywalker Saga and the earlier LEGO Batman games.

Analyst Rhys Elliott estimated 1.2 million copies sold and $83 million in revenue in its first days, though Warner Bros. has not confirmed a number.

Critic score 87. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 78. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

From the studio behind Returnal, and its highest-rated game so far.

No sales numbers announced yet, and players rate it lower than critics.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 78. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Third in a series that has only gotten better, from the studio behind Ninja Gaiden.

Passed 1 million copies, a sales record for the series. Players are cooler on it than critics.

Critic score 85. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 80. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Arc System Works is one of the best fighting game studios, with Guilty Gear, BlazBlue and Dragon Ball FighterZ behind it.

An Alinea Analytics estimate put first week sales at 485,000 copies on PS5 and Steam, with no official number from Sony.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 89. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Remedy made Control, Alan Wake and Max Payne, but Quantum Break topped out at 2,719 players on Steam.

It peaked at over 34,000 concurrent Steam players, nearly four times the original Control's peak of about 9,100.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 84. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Ubisoft Singapore led the remake, with 15 Ubisoft studios contributing to it.

It sold over three million copies in its first week and passed 3.5 million in two weeks, and its 99,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch set a franchise record.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 81. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The Game Bakers is a small indie studio known for Furi and Haven.

The studio announced on March 26, 2026 that Cairn had sold more than 500,000 copies.

Critic score 88. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 86. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

We couldn't find an earlier Undercoders game with anything like this reach, so the studio's track record is thin.

About a month after launch it had sold over 150,000 copies and passed 300,000 players.

Critic score 88. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 85. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The same studio made Ace Combat 7, the best-selling game in the series with over seven million units sold by January 2026.

It came out on Oct 2, 2026, so there are no sales, player counts or awards to go on yet.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 83. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Founded by core developers of The Witcher 3.

1M copies in about three days. Good reviews, but not great yet.

Critic score 85. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 79. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Made by veterans of the modern XCOM games.

Best-reviewed Star Wars game in 22 years, but reports of studio furloughs make the long run unclear.

Critic score 82. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 85. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Nintendo published this new entry in the long-running Rhythm Heaven series, developed by TNX.

It sold 393,378 copies in its first week in Japan and debuted at number one on the Famitsu chart.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 77. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Dragon Quest is a series with over 100 million sales, and HexaDrive is an experienced remake and port studio.

It sold 456,552 physical copies in Japan in its first week across Switch, Switch 2 and PS5.

Critic score 88. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 84. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Fuse Games was set up in 2023 by senior developers from Criterion, the studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed.

It reached No. 3 on Steam's top sellers but peaked at only 8,367 concurrent Steam players, with 72% of 126 Steam reviews positive.

Critic score 77. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 87. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The studio's first single-player game, after the MMO Black Desert.

Players love it more than critics, and it passed 6 million copies with DLC on the way.

Critic score 80. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 79. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Tarsier made the first two Little Nightmares games and worked on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway Unfolded.

Embracer reported it sold over one million copies and called it something to build on for the long term.

Critic score 84. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 77. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Evil Empire and Motion Twin made it together for Konami, picking up a series that had gone years without a new full game.

It peaked at 17,896 concurrent players on Steam, the most for any Castlevania there, though early Steam reviews were only 59% positive.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 83. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Fourth game in the OPUS series, which includes the well reviewed Echo of Starsong.

Roughly 21,700 Steam copies with 1,162 reviews, so the audience is small even at 93 percent positive.

Critic score 85. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 80. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

First released game from a solo developer, picked up by Raw Fury partway through.

Around 293,600 Steam copies and 9,597 Steam reviews sitting at 95 percent positive.

Critic score 82. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 77. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Cold Symmetry's first Mortal Shell was a small soulslike that peaked at 1,931 concurrent players on Steam.

The sequel peaked at 37,812 concurrent players on Steam, roughly twenty times the first game.

Critic score 81. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 82. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Velan is a younger studio taking on a Nintendo series that had gone quiet for years.

It opened at No. 1 on Famitsu's Japanese chart with 41,680 retail copies in launch week.

Critic score 75. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 67. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Insomniac made Marvel's Spider-Man (87 on Metacritic) and Spider-Man 2 (90), so this score was a clear step down for the studio.

Alinea Analytics estimated about 1.9 million copies sold in the first three days, and over 5,700 user ratings shows a lot of people are playing it even with lukewarm reviews.

Critic score 81. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 57. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Bungie made Halo and Destiny, but this is its first extraction shooter.

It peaked at 88,337 players at once on Steam at launch but has since lost more than 96% of that, even with analyst estimates of about 1.5 million sold by late May.

Critic score 76. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 74. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Camelot has made Mario tennis and golf games since the 1990s, and the series is steady rather than great.

Nintendo left it out of its May 2026 financial report, which lists only games past 1 million copies, so it had not reached that mark.

Critic score 86. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 59. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

The studio's second game after The Artful Escape, and again built around music.

About 146,000 Steam copies, but concurrent players fell from a peak of 2,239 in May to 17 by September.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 66. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

ZA/UM made Disco Elysium, and several critics held this game up against it and found it wanting.

It peaked at just over 3,200 concurrent players, and ZA/UM cut up to 32 jobs in July because sales fell short.

Critic score 80. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 72. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Screen Burn, called No Code until 2025, made Stories Untold and Observation. This is its first Silent Hill.

It peaked at 7,570 players at once on Steam in its first week. Silent Hill f and the Silent Hill 2 remake both passed 20,000.

Critic score 83. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 78. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Douze Dixièmes is a small French indie studio, and its Wikipedia page lists no earlier games.

The studio announced on June 23, 2026 that it was closing, so the game will get no more support, and no sales figures have been published.

Critic score 74. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 80. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Team Ninja, the Koei Tecmo studio behind Ninja Gaiden and Nioh, rebuilt Tecmo's 2003 PlayStation 2 original.

Its Steam peak was 3,976 players at once, and in September it averaged about 73.

Critic score 74. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 62. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Ryu ga Gotoku has a long, strong record with the Yakuza and Like a Dragon series.

Sega has not announced sales, and it peaked at only 8,263 players at once on Steam in its launch month.

Critic score 72. A 70 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 40 points.

Audience score 56. A 60 earns nothing and a 98 earns all 20 points.

Supermassive made Until Dawn and The Quarry. This is the fifth game in its Dark Pictures series.

It peaked at 3,021 players at once on Steam, and in August Supermassive said it would cut up to 75 jobs.