Opinion piece. This is one editor’s read of how 2026’s biggest games compare. Sales figures, review scores and player counts are sourced; the rankings are not.
We’re nine and a half months into 2026, with the year’s biggest launch (GTA VI on November 19) still ahead of us. That makes October the right moment to take stock of what has actually shipped. Six 2026 releases cleared 90 on Metacritic (the review-aggregator website that averages critic scores), a long tail of major franchises turned up in the 75-to-85 range, and a couple of long-awaited sequels bombed in ways worth talking about.
The tiers below use critic scores, sales or player counts, and a fan’s-eye read of whether the game will be remembered next year. Let me know in the comments where yours landed differently.
S Tier: Must-Play, Game Of The Year Contenders
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Remastered)
The year’s top Metacritic game, and it’s a remaster. CD Projekt Red rebuilt the 2015 RPG for Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S with ray tracing, faster load times, and a handful of QoL changes. The base game is one of the greatest RPGs ever made, so this is the version you’ll want to replay it on. A clean 92 from 109 reviews means the remaster polished the original without breaking it.
Doom: The Dark Ages: Revelations
id Software’s mid-year expansion earned a 91 by leaning into the Doom Slayer’s medieval horror roots. It’s an add-on rather than a sequel, but it kept the series at the top of the single-player FPS conversation while Helldivers and Battlefield were busy with their live-service shuffles. The fact that a paid DLC outscores most full-priced releases this year says more about id than about the year.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
Nihon Falcom’s 2006 JRPG, the second entry in the long-running Trails series, returned with a full graphical overhaul, voice acting and a re-recorded soundtrack. GungHo handled the English release on Switch, Switch 2, PS5 and PC on September 17. A 90 on Metacritic and a 97% recommendation on OpenCritic (a separate review-aggregator site) make it the highest-rated JRPG of the year, and arguably the most important Trails western launch since the first game landed in English in 2015.
A Tier: Excellent, With Caveats
Forza Horizon 6
Playground Games took the open-world racer to Japan, with a five-times-larger Tokyo than Forza Horizon 5’s map and 550-plus cars at launch. The Premium edition shipped early on May 15, the standard edition followed May 19, and the PS5 version is dated January 26, 2027. A 90 Metacritic and a day-one Game Pass Ultimate addition make it the year’s easiest recommendation. The pre-launch Steam file leak forced Playground to ban pirates who played early; the only real knock is that single-player progression is light compared to multiplayer.
Big Walk
House House’s follow-up to Untitled Goose Game is a co-op walking sim set in a stylized Wilsons Promontory, Australia. A 91 Metacritic came from proximity-chat puzzles built around miming, walkie-talkies and flare guns. The catch is that the game is built for groups: bring a friend or two, or the puzzles fall flat. It’s already nominated for Best Indie Game at the Golden Joystick Awards.
Mina the Hollower
Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight) shipped a Game Boy Color-styled action-adventure on May 29. Jake “virt” Kaufman and Yuzo Koshiro on the soundtrack is a candy-tier combination, and 98% of OpenCritic critics recommended it. The Kickstarter raised $1.4 million; the finished game sold 300,000 copies in three days and cleared 500,000 by two weeks. The studio that learned everything from Nintendo’s portable games made one of the best portable-style games of the year.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
The first new mainline Ace Combat in 12 years shipped on October 2 and sold 1 million copies in under two weeks, the fastest in series history. Our review roundup noted a 91 Metascore and the new cloud-only “Cloudly” tech as the standout. The campaign is the reason you buy it; the multiplayer is the reason you stay. Our beginner’s guide is here for new pilots.
B Tier: Good Games, Held Back By Something
Battlefield 6
The most ambitious Battlefield yet, with 64-player matches, a Dead Space crossover in Season 5, and the long-awaited server browser. It joined EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate on day one, which is the only reason the box price felt reasonable. The campaign is still the franchise’s weakest link, but multiplayer carried it. Our Game Pass launch coverage tracked the rollout.
Arc Raiders
The ex-Battlefield studio behind THE FINALS shipped this extraction shooter; it hit a 7-month high on concurrent users after the Frozen Trail update and a free weekend in early October. Our player-count data showed a sustained lift into the high six figures on Steam. The PvPvE loop rewards patience over twitch, and the player base has grown steadily since launch. The launch was rough; the post-launch support has been quietly excellent.
Planet Zoo 2
Frontier Developments’ sequel launched on October 12 with a real-world wildlife NGO partnership and a conservation framing that beat most of its sim-management competitors to the punch. Best for fans of the original; newcomers will hit a steep onboarding curve. The console-version parity is the real reason this lands in B rather than A.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
Konami returned the series to 2D with a Metroidvania that earned an 86 Metascore ahead of its October 15 launch, with 96% of 52 critic reviews landing positive. Our review roundup praised the boss design and the throwback to Symphony of the Night’s sprite work. The pre-launch critical reception is strong; we’ll know whether it lands higher after release day.
C Tier: Disappointing Or Underselling
Gears of War: E-Day
The Coalition’s prequel earned a respectable 31,517 Steam peak per our tracking, triple the series’ old record on the platform. The reviews were solid but not spectacular, and our coverage made the case that the $70 launch price made for soft sales versus expectations. The package is good; the question is whether $70 Xbox exclusives still work in 2026.
Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Expansion
Capcom shipped a meaty expansion to the 2024 open-world RPG on October 9. The new vocation and a refreshed pawn system have landed cleaner than the base game’s 2024 launch. A reason for lapsed players to come back, not a reason for new players to start.
Where Winds Meet
NetEase’s open-world action RPG hit 100M-plus players in its first year, but most of those players are in China. The Western reception has been more muted, with our DLSS 5 support coverage landing as the most concrete Western angle. A huge global success; a niche one for English-language readers.
D Tier: Should Have Done Better, Or Should Not Have Shipped
S&box (Free-To-Play Pivot)
Garry Newman’s S&box is going free-to-play by year’s end. The reason is a year of weak Steam reviews: 47% positive and 3,600 reviews, versus Garry’s Mod’s 97% and 541,000-plus ratings. The “got it wrong” rethink drops the Netflix-for-games hub and embraces Steam Workshop. The pivot is honest; it’s also the year’s clearest “should have launched this way.”
Total War: SHOGUN 2 Complete Edition
Creative Assembly’s remaster launched to “Overwhelmingly Negative” Steam reviews after players found the original 2011 release delisted from Steam. The first-ever Japanese voice acting and a new UI couldn’t outweigh the delisting controversy. Best Western strategy game of 2011; worst Steam launch of 2026.
Where The Rest Land
How to Fish hit 10 million players in two months without spending a marketing dollar. Helldivers 2’s Xbox launch finally made the cross-platform thing real. Helldivers 2 and Battlefield 6 are the year-defining live-service games; the rest are mostly single-player. Monster Hunter Wilds’ Switch 2 port on December 4 is the late-year console launch to circle. Phantom Blade Zero on October 29 and the Switch 2 versions of RE 2, 3 and 4 on October 16 round out the calendar before GTA VI arrives November 19.
The big-picture read: 2026 belongs to the remasters, the indie studios, and the live-service games that figured out how to add content without alienating the player base. The third-party exclusive space is the emptiest it’s been in years. Rank accordingly, and remember: GTA VI hasn’t even launched yet.
Our take: The year’s top Metacritic game is a remaster of an 11-year-old RPG, the only top-rated zero-to-new IP was House House’s walking sim, and the highest-grossing live-service games are the ones that figured out the post-launch patch cadence. That’s not a flattering summary of 2026’s biggest publishers, but it is the year players got. Fight among yourselves in the comments.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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Join the discussion Which 2026 release are you most likely to still be playing in 2027, and which one should have skipped the year entirely?
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