It’s been a few months since Forza Horizon 6 and Mina The Hollower vied for 2026’s best game, but a new indie darling has come along and outdone both of them.
The fight for 2026’s highest rated video game has been a fierce one, especially when compared to 2025, where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 held the top spot for months until Hades 2 came along – and then Clair Obscur won all the game of the year awards anyway.
Resident Evil Requiem was an early contender, only to be topped by Pokémon Pokopia, which was then overtaken by Forza Horizon 6, which was later beaten by Mina The Hollower.
Those last two have since settled for joint first place, but now Big Walk has come along and immediately taken the top spot in Metacritic’s ranking.
At the time of writing, Big Walk – which launched on Tuesday, August 4 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC – boasts an average Metacritic score of 94 (out of 100), making it the highest rated game of the year.
This is specifically for the PC version, since that’s the version with the most reviews. The PlayStation 5 version has a score of 88, while the Switch 2 version, which has some technical issues, has a score of 77.
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Big Walk’s score is based on only 19 reviews, whereas Forza Horizon 6 has 78 reviews and Mina The Hollower has 69 reviews, which does lend Big Walk an advantage since a wider range of reviews with some lower scores thrown in could’ve lowered its ranking.
Regardless, we’d argue Big Walk is more than deserving of the top spot, as it’s not only cleverly designed but a genuinely innovative co-op game.
Technically, Big Walk shares the top spot with twin stick shooter Sektori, but that’s a Switch 2 port of a 2025 release so it really shouldn’t be counted… even if Sektori is also fantastic.
It is possible Big Walk’s position may drop should more reviews be published, although if they’re as positive as the rest, they’d only help further cement its position.
As it stands, Metacritic’s highest rated games of 2026 (not counting ports, re-releases, or DLC expansions) looks like this:
- Big Walk
- Forza Horizon 6
- Mina The Hollower
- Schrodinger’s Call
- Pokémon Pokopia
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Denshattack!
- Mewgenics
- 007 First Light
- Saros
It’ll be interesting to see how long Big Walk holds its position or if it will be overthrown in just a month or two. It certainly wouldn’t be surprising if either GTA 6 or the remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time manage to dethrone it.
Out of curiosity, we checked to see what the lowest rated game of 2026 so far is and, perhaps unsurprisingly, that dishonour goes to PlayStation 5 exclusive Code Violet, a dreadful Dino Crisis clone from January which has a Metacritic score of 29.
Coincidentally, second to last place goes to another dinosaur themed horror game, Tokyo Scramble, which launched in February as a Switch 2 exclusive and has an average score of 41. Clearly, Capcom needs to come along with a proper Dino Crisis sequel or remake to show how it’s done.
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