Nintendo Was The Number One Publisher On Metacritic In 2014

Metacritic scores seem to mean a lot nowadays so it’s great to hear that Nintendo was the number one video game publisher in 2014 according to Metascore. The company that was just behind the Kyoto based company was Ubisoft who scored as the second best publisher of 2014, followed by EA. Be sure to check out the Metacritic page to get a more detailed breakdown.

Shooting up three spots in our rankings to #1 among the large publishers, Nintendo is also the only one of the majors to finish the year with a “green” average Metascore—despite the fact that only 56% of its games received positive reviews from critics. (Basically, 2014 was not the most memorable of years in gaming history.) Nintendo’s performance is even more impressive given the fact that it released more unique titles (34) than any other publisher in 2014. The Wii U and 3DS maker saw its Metascore average increase by 2.7 points in last year (compared to the previous year) even though it didn’t have a single 2014 game score as highly as its 2013 leader, Super Mario 3D World. Nintendo was actually the only publisher last year with more than one game (with at least 7 reviews) to score in the 90+ range, with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Bayonetta 2 both hitting 91. In a reverse from 2013, the publisher’s Wii U games scored more highly than its 3DS releases. The average for the former was an impressive 81.3 (for 12 Wii U releases), while its 22 3DS games averaged just 73.9.

Thanks,  lamatsucubo and Dee