Sega tops Metacritic list of the best game publishers for third yearAdam StarkeyPublished March 5, 2025 6:10pmUpdated March 5, 2025 6:10pm Metaphor has kept Sega in the race (Sega)Metacritic has released its annual rankings of the best game publishers of the year and theres not a big name American company in the whole top eight.Last year may have been dismal for the games industry in terms of sales and layoffs, but there were still plenty of great games to sink yourself into.The positives from last year have been collated into Metacritics annual ranking of the most successful video game publishers. The list is based on the sites average review score across every game released in 2024, which is converted into points based on different brackets for great titles (above 90), good (75 and up), and bad (below 49).Last years list was topped by Capcom thanks to Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6, but Sega has clawed itself back to the top in 2024.Segas win is mostly thanks to Atluss Metaphor: ReFantazio, which earned a Metacritic score of 94. Other games from the company last year include Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (87) and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (89), with Segas average landing at 82.9 based on 12 games.Sega is now the first company to top the list three times, following previous wins in 2021 and 2016. Infinite Wealth was a hit among critics too (Sega)Last years winner Capcom was close behind in second place, with an average score of 82.1. The companys highest-rated game was Dragons Dogma 2 with a score of 88.Others in the top five include Aksys Games, which only released five games but had a 100% good rating across all of them. Then there was Sony, which was lifted by Astro Bot and Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and Focus Entertainment with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.Interestingly, aside from the California-based Aksys Games (which publishes Japanese-made games and indie titles from European publisher Rising Star Games), the only US-based companies in the top 10 are Microsoft and Annapurna Interactive at nine and 10, respectively.After hoovering up Activision Blizzard and Bethesda, Microsoft has a 79.4 average, while Annapurna was close behind with 79.2 thanks to Lorelei And The Laser Eyes.Surprisingly, Nintendo is way down at number 22 with an average of 76, thanks to poorly received games such as Endless Ocean Luminous and Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer. Its best received title was Paper Mario: The Thousand Year-Door with 88, but even that couldnt boost the overall number for the Nintendo Switchs last big year.Incredibly, Nintendo are even below Ubisoft. The publisher may have had a bad year sales-wise, but it managed to increase its Metacritic ranking by five places from last year to number 18, mostly thanks to Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown.The lowest on the list is the largely unknown Fulqrum Publishing, which achieved an average rank of 71.1, based on five games.More TrendingIt remains to be seen if Sega can hold onto the title in 2025, but the company has recently said it is planning to release fewer full games during its next fiscal year (April 2025 to March 2026).Full games are categorised as those which arent free-to-play, in other words proper games like the upcoming Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance.In its latest earnings call, Sega also vowed to strengthen its current studios, specifically Atlus, Like A Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and Sonic Team.Atlus is an important studio for us to expand Japanese IPs overseas and we think it is necessary to strengthen it, and the studios involved in the Sonic and Like a Dragon IPs are also short of staff, and we are looking to reinforce personnel through additional hiring and M&A, the publisher said. Will Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds keep up the momentum? (Sega)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy