Credits to Metacritic
Metacritic has published its 2021 Publisher Rankings, featuring a surprise on top of the chart, SEGA, which was propelled by Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza 0. Indie publisher Annapurna Interactive actually had a higher average Metascore, but it lacked SEGA’s two great games mentioned above.
On the other hand, big companies like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive didn’t even make it into the Top 20; Bethesda Softworks ranked 16th, Ubisoft 14th, Square Enix 11th, while Nintendo narrowly made the Top 10 at the 9th place. Microsoft arrived 6th thanks to Flight Simulator and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, while Activision Blizzard secured 5th place through the releases of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
Sony had a great year with The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Demon’s Souls and Dreams, though it also published the disappointing Predator: The Hunting Grounds, ending up in the fourth spot. Lastly, the podium is completed by CAPCOM which had another great year (Resident Evil 3 Remake, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne).
In order to be listed in these Publisher Rankings, a company had to release a minimum of five distinct titles throughout 2020. The following four factors have contributed to the chart, with the first one counting slightly more than the others.
- (1) Average Metascore for all games released in 2020
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore) - (2) % of scored products with good reviews (Metascore of at least )
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points) - (3) % of scored products with bad reviews ( or lower; in this case, a lower % is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points) - (4) Number of “great” titles (Metascore of or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a 90+ score
| Metascore | Good Games | Bad Games | Great Games | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Avg. | Pts. | % | Pts. | % | Pts. | # | Pts. | Total Pts. | |
| 1 | Sega | 81.6 | 122.4 | 95% | 94.7 | 0% | 100.0 | 2 | 10.0 | 327.2 |
| 2 | Annapurna Interactive | 81.9 | 122.9 | 100% | 100.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 322.9 |
| 3 | Capcom | 80.3 | 120.5 | 93% | 93.3 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 313.8 |
| 4 | Sony | 79.8 | 119.7 | 79% | 78.9 | 0% | 100.0 | 2 | 10.0 | 308.6 |
| 5 | Activision Blizzard | 79.9 | 119.9 | 87% | 86.7 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 306.6 |
| 6 | Microsoft | 78.6 | 118.0 | 65% | 65.4 | 0% | 100.0 | 2 | 10.0 | 293.3 |
| 7 | Aksys Games | 76.7 | 115.0 | 75% | 75.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 290.0 |
| 8 | No More Robots | 77.2 | 115.8 | 71% | 71.4 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 287.2 |
| 9 | Nintendo | 75.4 | 113.0 | 67% | 66.7 | 0% | 100.0 | 1 | 5.0 | 284.7 |
| 10 | Devolver Digital | 74.6 | 111.9 | 59% | 59.1 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 271.0 |
| 11 | Square Enix | 75.3 | 113.0 | 53% | 52.6 | 0% | 100.0 | 1 | 5.0 | 270.6 |
| 12 | Xseed | 72.8 | 109.2 | 60% | 60.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 269.2 |
| 13 | 505 Games | 74.0 | 111.0 | 60% | 60.0 | 4% | 96.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 267.0 |
| 14 | Ubisoft | 74.8 | 112.2 | 54% | 53.8 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 266.0 |
| 15 | Focus Home Interactive | 72.5 | 108.7 | 57% | 57.1 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 265.9 |
| 16 | Bethesda Softworks | 74.7 | 112.0 | 60% | 60.0 | 7% | 93.3 | 0 | 0.0 | 265.4 |
| 17 | Team17 | 74.8 | 112.2 | 52% | 51.7 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 264.0 |
| 18 | Humble | 75.7 | 113.5 | 50% | 50.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 263.5 |
| 19 | Sold Out | 74.3 | 111.5 | 42% | 41.7 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 253.1 |
| 20 | Raw Fury | 71.2 | 106.8 | 45% | 45.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 251.8 |
| 21 | Electronic Arts | 72.6 | 108.9 | 44% | 43.8 | 3% | 96.9 | 0 | 0.0 | 249.5 |
| 22 | Take-Two Interactive | 71.4 | 107.1 | 40% | 40.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 247.1 |
| 23 | Koch Media | 72.2 | 108.3 | 38% | 37.8 | 2% | 97.8 | 0 | 0.0 | 243.8 |
| 24 | NIS America | 70.4 | 105.6 | 38% | 38.1 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 243.7 |
| 25 | SNK | 70.6 | 105.9 | 38% | 37.5 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 243.4 |
| 26 | Playism | 68.7 | 103.0 | 38% | 37.5 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 240.5 |
| 27 | THQ Nordic | 72.1 | 108.2 | 32% | 31.6 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 239.8 |
| 28 | Digerati | 73.0 | 109.5 | 25% | 25.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 234.5 |
| 29 | Kalypso | 69.7 | 104.6 | 29% | 28.6 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 233.1 |
| 30 | Daedalic Entertainment | 70.1 | 105.2 | 27% | 27.3 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 232.4 |
| 31 | Headup Games | 73.6 | 110.4 | 20% | 20.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 230.4 |
| 32 | Koei Tecmo | 70.1 | 105.1 | 20% | 20.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 225.1 |
| 33 | PQube | 69.3 | 103.9 | 35% | 35.3 | 18% | 82.4 | 0 | 0.0 | 221.5 |
| 34 | Curve Digital | 65.3 | 98.0 | 31% | 30.8 | 8% | 92.3 | 0 | 0.0 | 221.1 |
| 35 | QubicGames | 67.2 | 100.8 | 20% | 20.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 220.8 |
| 36 | ININ Games | 67.2 | 100.8 | 20% | 20.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 220.8 |
| 37 | Nacon | 65.7 | 98.5 | 21% | 21.2 | 3% | 97.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 216.7 |
| 38 | Bandai Namco | 65.8 | 98.7 | 19% | 18.6 | 7% | 93.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 210.3 |
| 39 | All in! Games | 66.4 | 99.5 | 10% | 10.0 | 0% | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 209.5 |
| 40 | Wired Productions | 65.1 | 97.6 | 30% | 30.0 | 20% | 80.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 207.6 |
| 41 | Ratalaika Games | 57.7 | 86.5 | 13% | 12.5 | 13% | 87.5 | 0 | 0.0 | 186.5 |
| 42 | Merge Games | 57.9 | 86.8 | 19% | 18.8 | 25% | 75.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 180.5 |
| 43 | Modus Games | 60.1 | 90.1 | 5% | 5.0 | 15% | 85.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 180.1 |
| 44 | Blowfish Studios | 62.5 | 93.8 | 8% | 8.3 | 25% | 75.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 177.2 |
| 45 | tinyBuild | 59.1 | 88.7 | 0% | 0.0 | 18% | 81.8 | 0 | 0.0 | 170.5 |
| 46 | Silesia Games | 54.3 | 81.5 | 0% | 0.0 | 20% | 80.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 161.5 |
| 47 | No Gravity Games | 55.3 | 83.0 | 0% | 0.0 | 33% | 66.7 | 0 | 0.0 | 149.7 |
| 48 | Ultimate Games | 49.4 | 74.2 | 13% | 12.5 | 50% | 50.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 136.7 |
