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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#4: Activision Blizzard

Previous year's rank: 5
Average Metascore for 2021 releases: 80.6
17 scored products (6 distinct titles): 82% good, 0% bad
"Great" games: 1
Total points: 308.2

Given all of the activity and controversy surrounding Activision Blizzard in 2021, it's almost a bit of a surprise to see the gaming giant ranked so highly. But here they are, thanks to acclaimed titles like the remastered compilation Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 and a new game in the Crash Bandicoot series (and, to a lesser extent, Blizzard's Diablo II: Resurrected). In fact, the publisher had just one critical disappointment in 2021: Call of Duty Vanguard.

In fact, the latter title was somehow also a commercial disappointment despite being the year's best-selling game in the U.S.—so much so that this year's version (rumored to be a sequel to the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot) could arrive a few weeks earlier than normal. But declining sales were not the only issue for a publisher that also experienced a declining stock price, multiple development delays, and a widely publicized discrimination and harassment lawsuit and widespread employee dissatisfaction in its wake (including multiple walkouts). All of the above issues left Activision Blizzard vulnerable to a takeover, and in stepped Microsoft with an offer of $68.7 billion, resulting in what will be the largest game industry acquisition in history. That deal has not yet closed, so Activision Blizzard's totals remain distinct from those of Microsoft in our rankings. (Going forward, it is still unclear how integrated the two companies will be.)

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