The Biggest Publishers Of 2025 Are Coming Off An Amazing Year
Sega takes the top spot a third time.
Both Sega and Capcom are off to a tremendous start in 2025. Last month, Sega released its wacky nautical adventure Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii to universally favorable reviews. And last week, Capcom released Monster Hunter Wilds, the fastest selling game in company history. But according to aggregate review site Metacritic, the hot start these two companies are having this year is just a continuation of what both pulled off in 2024.
Metacritic released a list of 2024’s best publishers across the games industry, weighing the critical reception of the games it released throughout the year. The list only counts publishers that released five or more distinct titles throughout the year, awarding points based on the average Metacritic scores of its games.
This time around, Sega earned the number one spot. It bumps Capcom, last year’s top publisher, to number two.
2024 was a big year for Sega, as it published two of the year’s best video games.
“The first publisher to achieve our #1 ranking three times, Sega was buoyed by the massive critical acclaim for the JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio,” the report reads. “A rare all-new IP in a sea of remakes, ports, and sequels.” Sega also earned the top spot in 2016 and 2021, according to the report.
Considering the massive year both publishers had, its not much of a surprise to see them come out on top. Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 was one of 2024’s early critical hits. The rest of the year saw the Japanese publisher release the cult-hit Kunitsu Game: Path Of The Goddess, as well as a handful of fun rereleases and collections in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, and Ace Attorney Investigation Collection.
“Despite releasing no games with a score of 90 or higher, Capcom nearly topped our rankings for the second consecutive year thanks to the overall strength of its offerings,” the report reads. “Every Capcom release in 2024 received positive reviews from critics.”
Sega, on the other hand, released Like A Draon: Infinite Wealth alongside Metaphor: ReFantazio, both of which were 2024’s biggest critical darlings, as well as crossover hits like Sonic x Shadow Generations which coincided with the Blue Blur’s third live-action flick. The compay has been on a roll for a while now thanks to its relationship with RPG masters Atlus and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. According to Metacritic, Sega’s only middling release was a game based on the anime Demon Slayer, which still did okay critically.
Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 was another one of 2024’s earliest successes.
Rounding out the top five was Aksys Games at number three, a publisher known for localizing Japanese games for English speaking countries, Sony Interactive at number four, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment at number five. Sony had the most polarizing year of the top five, as it released the game with the year’s highest overall critic score in Astro Bot. However, its average was dragged down by the likes of the live service fever dream that is Concord.
Some of the other big name publishers to make the list include Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth publisher Square Enix at number 6 (tied with indie publisher Gamera) and the massive Microsoft at number 9. Nintendo, which spent most of the year releasing minor titles the Switch’s last year as the company’s on console, was listed at 22.
Metacritic has put together this report for 15 years now. In 2023, Sony took home the top spot, followed by Microsoft in 2022.
