Metacritic's 11th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – March 25, 2021

Which game publishers released the best games in 2020? For the 11th straight year, we sifted through 12 months of data to determine the best and worst game publishers of the year, based solely on the quality of their 2020 releases. 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.

Publishers are ranked from worst to best in the gallery above based on a points system, calculated (as in previous years) according to the following four factors:

(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 75)
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)

(3) % of scored products with bad reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower % is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)

(4) Number of "great" titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a 90+ score

Note that the Metascore average (the first factor) counts slightly more than the other factors. Only publishers with five or more distinct titles released last year are included in our rankings.

Finally, note that iOS games are excluded from all calculations. All scores in this report are from March 3, 2021, and U.S. release dates and publishers are used for all games except those never released in the U.S.

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#21: Electronic Arts

Previous year's rank: 13
Average Metascore for 2020 releases: 72.6
32 scored products (15 distinct titles): 44% good, 3% bad
"Great" games: none
Total points: 249.5

It wasn't a particularly notable year for the gaming giant, which saw a nearly three-point drop in its average Metascore. It's the second straight year of declining scores for EA, which ranked as highly as third in our rankings just two years ago.

A trio of games tied for 82, EA's high score mark for 2020, but none was particularly novel: a remastered Command & Conquer compilation, the Sims 4 DLC Eco Lifestyle, and EA Sports title UFC 4. Even EA's new-ish indie label EA Originals had an uneventful year, with the brand's sole 2020 release, the multiplayer shooter Rocket Arena, receiving mostly underwhelming reviews. The publisher's worst game last year was easily the Switch "legacy" version of FIFA 21, which was yet another repackage of the same original Switch soccer game with updated rosters.

EA recently acquired racing game studio Codemasters, but since the deal did not close until last month, Codemaster-published titles are not included in EA's figures above.

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