By Sagar V. Mankar 
Sega has earned the title of top video game publisher for 2024 based on Metacritic’s annual publisher rankings. This marks the third time Sega has achieved this honor, with previous wins in 2016 and 2021.
Metacritic, a website that collects game reviews and calculates average scores, recently announced its publisher rankings. The site evaluated companies based on how well their games were reviewed throughout the year, with extra points awarded for games scoring 90 or above.
Sega’s success came largely from highly-rated role-playing games released by its subsidiaries. Games like “Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth” from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and “Metaphor: ReFantazio” from Atlus received excellent reviews. According to Metacritic’s data, “Metaphor: ReFantazio” scored an impressive 94, while “Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth” earned an 89, and “Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance” received an 87.
Capcom, last year’s winner, came in second place by just two points. Its standout title was “Dragon’s Dogma 2,” supported by several smaller games that also received positive reviews. Capcom has been on a successful streak since revitalizing its “Resident Evil” franchise in 2017.
Aksys Games was the surprise entry in the rankings, taking third place thanks to high scores for “Spirit Hunter: Death Mark” and positive reviews across all five of its 2024 releases.
Sony secured fourth place, largely due to the success of Team Asobi’s “Astro Bot,” which won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024 and 110 other awards shows. Metacritic counted titles from both PlayStation Studios and Bungie under Sony’s banner, as Bungie is now a Sony subsidiary.
Focus Entertainment rounded out the top five with “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2” as its flagship title.
Microsoft placed ninth in the rankings. The company released well-regarded games like MachineGames’ “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” from Treyarch and Raven Software. For Microsoft’s ranking, Metacritic included games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Activision Publishing, and Blizzard Entertainment under one umbrella. The Switch port of “Pentiment” was Microsoft’s highest-rated title, while “Starfield’s Shattered Space” DLC received lower scores.
Nintendo fell to 22nd place, which isn’t surprising given its limited major releases in 2024. “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door” was Nintendo’s biggest title of the year. Industry observers suggest Nintendo is likely holding its major games for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.
These rankings are based purely on review scores, without considering sales figures or user reviews. Only publishers with five or more distinct titles released in 2024 qualified for the list.
As 2025 continues, it will be interesting to see if Sega can maintain its position at the top as they announced the release fewer titles in the next financial year. Meanwhile, Capcom already had a strong start this year with recent releases like “Monster Hunter Wilds.”