The famous review aggregator Metacritic has published again this year its ranking of the best video game publishers of the past year, drawn up using the average votes of the titles published by each publisher during the year. And, for the first time in many years, Xbox Game Studios finally turns out to be the best publisher of the year.

But not only that: in the ranking, among the top 5 classified, we also find Bethesda Softworks, owned by Microsoft, and Activision, also soon by Microsoft if the acquisition goes as planned. Here is the complete ranking:

• #1 Xbox Game Studios
• #2 Sony Interactive Entertainment
• #3 Humble Games
• #4 Activision Blizzard
• #5 Bethesda Softworks
• #6 Capcom
• #7 Bandai Namco
• #8 Saw
• #9 Electronic Arts
• #10 505 Games

The previous year the XGS had placed at number #6, so this result is tangible proof of the excellent work done by Phil Spencer to get the Xbox studios back on track; during 2021, critically acclaimed titles such as Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator and Halo Infinite were released that contributed to this result.

Our congratulations to the entire Xbox Game Studios team and to all the developers involved!