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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#5: Bethesda Softworks

Previous year's rank: 16
Average Metascore for 2021 releases: 80.2
15 scored products (7 distinct titles): 87% good, 0% bad
"Great" games: none
Total points: 306.9

As you likely know, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media was purchased by Microsoft last year, but since Microsoft has pledged to maintain ZeniMax as a separate business, we are treating Bethesda as a separate publisher—for now. And as a separate publisher, Bethesda had a very good 2021, with only two of its 15 scored products failing to receive a positive critical reception. Bethesda's best games were the new IP Deathloop (developed by sister company Arkane Studios) and a remastered version of the classic Quake.

The year ahead could be another big one for Bethesda, as its lineup includes highly anticipated titles Starfield (due in November) and Ghostwire: Tokyo (arriving later this month as, ironically, a PlayStation console exclusive).

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