We're just a little more than two months into 2026, and we already have two gaming heavyweights duking it out for the highest-rated game title of the year. Resident Evil Requiem claimed the crown for the Pokémon Pokopia to unexpectedly rise up and take it away. Requiem, refusing to lie down, has pushed back and is back on top, but only just.
Requiem debuted with a score of 90 on OpenCritic and 88 on Metacritic, making it the highest-rated original entry in the series since Resident Evil 4. The assumption was that, even if those scores were low, which can happen when many reviews are published, Requiem would stay at the top for a long time. Pocopia, however, had other ideas.
Pokopia's reign as the best game of the year was short-lived
The hit new Pokemon game seemed like it was going to be great, but I don't think fans of the series were expecting how warmly it would be received. It debuted at 90 on Metacritic – and at one point reached 93 on OpenCritic – making it the highest-rated Pokémon game of all time. Even now that score sits at 88 on both sites, it's still tied with Pokemon Y for that record.
However, that slightly lower score hasn't changed its lofty status in the Pokemon world, dropping it down a peg in these early stages in the race to be crowned the highest-rated game of 2026. Because of this, more reviews are slowly starting to filter in, Requiem has done the unthinkable and the Me8 is unthinkable and above all else. Back to 90 on OpenCritic.
Requiem is again the highest rated game of the year
This means, whichever site you prefer to use, Requiem is now, once again, the highest rated game of 2026. That score is an average of 139 reviews compared to just 30 for Pokopia, which makes it even more impressive. There's still a long way to go, though, and Pocopia might get back up to 90 like Requiem did when more reviews are published, but history tells us that 90 isn't enough to keep you in the number one spot at the end of the year.
Last year, Hades 2 secured the pole position with an incredible 95. I finally found my way into the underworld recently and can confirm that Melino deserves every last one of those 95 points. Astro Bot's 95 made it the highest-rated game of 2024, and in 2023, Baldur's Gate 3 topped the pile with an eye-watering 96. A physical blow to Tears of the Kingdom, which with 95, had a better chance of taking the crown back to Hyrule than it had released in any other year.
- issued
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27 February, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense violence, blood and gore, strong language, in-game purchases
