Review collection site Metacritic has published its 2020 publisher rankings, showing us which studios have released the strongest line of games based on their overall quality – according to critics, at least.
Publishers are ranked according to a points system made up of four main steps, outlined below. To be certified, a publisher must distribute at least five titles during the year:
(1) Average metascore for all games released in 2020
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore)(2)% of results with good review scores (Metascore of at least 75)
Possible 100 points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)(3)% of score results with negative reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower% is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)(4) Number of “excellent” titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each specific title with a score of 90+
So, on to the list. Sega came out on top this year with an overall score of 372.2 points, thanks in part to it Royal Person 5 and Yakuza 0 scoring above ‘90’, earning the publisher’s bonus points as described in the fourth point above.
Nintendo landed in ninth place overall, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons as the only game to score above 90. The company’s average Metascore fell five points from the previous year, leaving it lower down the packing order than we would normally see.
Last year, in the 2019 publishers ranking, Nintendo came in third.
What do you think of Nintendo 2020? Did you end up buying and enjoying many of his games? Let us know in a comment below.