Square Enix was the best games publisher in 2025 according to Metacritic rankings

Last year, Metacritic's publisher rankings revealed SEGA to be the most successful game publisher in 2024 thanks to highly praised releases like Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Now, the rankings for 2025 have been released, with another Japanese publisher, Square Enix, topping the ranking.

For these rankings, Metacritic takes the average metascore for each publisher's games, then factors in the percentage of good reviews versus bad reviews to calculate which publisher fared best each year. For 2025, Square Enix ended up with 330.5 points, with an average released game rating of 84.

The full top ten is as follows:

1. Square Enix (330.5 points)
2. Gamirror Games (322.4 points)
3. Capcom (322.2 points)
4. Thunderful (306.8 points)
5. Microsoft (305.7 points)
6. Take-Two (304.0 points)
7. Sega (303.9 points)
8. Electronic Arts (302.9 points)
9. Dotemu (302.2 points)
10. Raw Fury (301.0 points)

This marks the third year in a row that a Japanese publisher has topped the rankings. Back in 2023, Capcom earned the top spot, followed by SEGA in 2024 and now Square Enix in 2025. Square Enix had a boost from a variety of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles launched in 2025.

The rankings next year should see Take-Two rising up a bit, as Grand Theft Auto 6 is due to launch this November. Interestingly, Microsoft also rose up a few spots in 2025, going from 9th place in 2024 to 5th place in 2025. Assuming titles like Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears E-Day and Fable launch to good reviews, Microsoft may also see a boost in the rankings once this year is all said and done.

KitGuru Says: Did you pick up any of Square Enix's new games in 2025?

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