Metacritic's 12th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – March 9, 2022

Which game publishers released the best games in 2021? For the 12th 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 2021 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 2021
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 January 31, 2022, and U.S. release dates and publishers are used for all games except those never released in the U.S.

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#43: Merge Games

Previous year's rank: 42 (of 48)
Average Metascore for 2021 releases: 61.5
16 scored products * (7 distinct titles **): 6% good, 0% bad ***
"Great" games: none †
Total points: 198.5

Unlike the previous year, we didn't have a single publisher in this year's rankings finish with an average Metascore in the red (i.e., 49 or lower). But somebody still had to finish last in our rankings, and this year that dubious honor fell to Merge Games—even if that British indie publisher didn't actually release a single game with a red Metascore. Instead, 15 of the 16 scored products released by Merge in 2021 scored in the yellow range, representing, well, mediocrity. (The one exception: the retail Switch release of Road 96, which managed to secure enough positive reviews to score a 75—the lowest possible green Metascore.)

Notes for this and all other slides:

* Scored products are the number of products released last year with at least four reviews from professional critics (which is the minimum needed to have a Metascore calculated); iOS games are not included.

** The difference between Distinct Titles and Scored Products, if any, results from multi-platform releases; for example, if The Sims 4: Even More Tables and Chairs comes out on the Switch, PS5, and PC, that counts as 3 total products but just 1 distinct title.

*** % Good / % Bad represent the % of those scored titles receiving a Metascore in the green range (75+) or red range (49 or lower), respectively.

† To qualify as Great (which earns the publisher 5 bonus points apiece), a game must have a Metascore of at least 90 and have at least 7 critic reviews. (If multiple versions of a mutli-platform title qualify, we only count that title once.)

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