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Sega is officially the best-rated publisher of 2024, according to Metacritic - and the first publisher to ever snatch the crown in three different years, mind you - thanks to a blockbuster line-up featuring some of the best Sonic, Yakuza, and Atlus games of all time.
Last calendar year, Sega was pretty much firing on all cylinders. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Metascore of 89) cranked the zany heartbreak all the way up, and Sonic X Shadow Generations (80) reminded us all of how damn cool the blue blur could be. Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (77) was another decent outing in the nail-biting try-not-to-fall-to-your-death series, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Sweep the Board was the publisher's lowest-rated title with a still-respectable average score of 71.
There are definitely some hits up there, but what pushed Sega above its competition was the jaw-dropping output of subsidiary Atlus, which developed fancy remake Persona 3 Reload (87), game of the year contender Metaphor: ReFantazio (94), and refreshed re-release Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance (87), which essentially included a whole other campaign, in one year. It also published maybe the best SRPG of its generation with Unicorn Overlord (86).
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Sega also clawed its way to Metacritic's top spot in 2021 and 2016. The only other publishers to reach first place twice are Microsoft, Capcom, Take-Two Interactive, and, surprisingly, Electronic Arts.
Elsewhere for the year, Capcom slotted into second place thanks to Dragon's Dogma 2, Sony reached fourth place with Astro Bot and Helldivers 2, Focus Entertainment rocketed up to fifth place with the help of Space Marine 2, and Microsoft was ninth with Indiana Jones and Call of Duty. Nintendo fell way off and only held onto number 22 on the list - Dreamcast fanboys can finally rejoice - but the imminent Nintendo Switch 2 launch should turn things around for the publisher.
"Only publishers with five or more distinct titles released last year are included in our rankings," Metacritic notes. "Sales and user reviews do not factor into these rankings; only critic reviews (as captured by each game's Metascore) are used to evaluate performance."
A banger year for sure, but the fun doesn't stop there. Check out what else is coming down the pipeline with our new games of 2025 release calendar.
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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.
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