Metacritic has today revealed its list of top game publishers for 2026 (based on their 2025 output), and this year, Microsoft has made the top five - beating out the likes of Sony and Nintendo in terms of average Metascores.
Based on its 2025 releases, Microsoft managed a Metacritic average rating of 80 - with Forza Horizon 5's PS5 port being the team's best game with a score of 92. In fact, Xbox's PS5 ports have massively boosted the overall output from last year, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5 being Microsoft's second best-rated game.
"Microsoft's very solid numbers listed above include games released by its subsidiary labels, including Bethesda Softworks, Activision, and Blizzard, in addition to its flagship Xbox Game Studios. Weirdly, Microsoft's two highest-scoring 2025 games were actually PlayStation products— Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle —both ports of previous Xbox console exclusives.
Its best Xbox game? That would be Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4. The best Xbox Game Studios-published Xbox game? The Outer Worlds 2. Most of the 19% of Microsoft's 2025 slate lacking positive reviews came from Activision (Call of Duty: Black Ops 7) and Bethesda (and Indiana Jones DLC)."
Those two releases helped push the Xbox owner into the top five here, and we'll share this shortlist down below (Metacritic takes other factors into account for its overall points totals):
2026 Game Publisher Rankings - Metacritic
- Square Enix (330.5 points) - average Metascore of 84
- Gamirror Games (322.4 points) - average Metascore of 82
- Capcom (322.2 points) - average Metascore of 83
- Thunderful (306.8 points) - average Metascore of 78
- Microsoft (305.7 points) - average Metascore of 80
In terms of those Sony and Nintendo rankings we mentioned previously, the PlayStation owner comes in at 21st, while the Switch 2 maker is in at 12th. The other platform holders have average Metascores of 74 and 77, respectively.
This looks like a pretty good turnout for Xbox then, even if those post-release PS5 ports are propping up Microsoft's scores a little bit here. It'll be interesting to see where the team ranks next year, given that we're due for a very busy latter half of 2026 from Team Green.