Nintendo Leads the 2026 First-Party Metacritic Comparison, but Xbox’s Average Is Disputed

Nintendo leads this early-October comparison of 2026 first-party games on Metacritic, with the most qualifying releases, the highest reported average and the most games scoring above 80. The picture has a notable caveat: reports disagree on Xbox’s average, and the available source excerpts do not provide complete game-by-game score lists for all three publishers. 249

The comparison at a glance

Publisher	Qualifying games	Reported average	Games scoring above 80
Nintendo	9	80.33	6
Xbox	6	77.5 or 78.33	3
PlayStation	6	77.5	3

The counts and above-80 totals are reported in coverage of the comparison. The average figures are less consistent: TheGamer reports Xbox and PlayStation tied at 77.5, while another account gives Xbox 78.33 and PlayStation 77.5. The provided evidence does not explain the difference, so Xbox’s average cannot be stated as settled. 2379

What counts as a first-party game?

The comparison counts games released by the time of reporting and attributes first-party status to titles published and funded by the platform holder, or developed by a studio it owns. Ports, downloadable content and remasters are excluded; remakes are included. These are Metacritic critic-score comparisons, not measures of sales or player opinion. 29

What the reported scores show

Nintendo has nine qualifying releases, compared with six each for Xbox and PlayStation. Six Nintendo games are reported above 80, while Xbox and PlayStation have three apiece. That gives Nintendo the strongest reported combination of release volume and number of high-scoring games in this snapshot. 27

The available excerpts identify Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave at 89 and Pokémon Pokopia at 88 among Nintendo’s releases. They do not provide enough information to reproduce complete, consistently verified title-and-score lists for all three publishers, so the comparison is best read as a summary of totals and averages rather than a full ranking of every game. 1320

Xbox, meanwhile, is reported to have the highest-scoring individual game: Forza Horizon 6 at 90, the only title in the comparison said to reach that mark. That individual result does not resolve the disagreement over Xbox’s overall average. 34

What this snapshot can—and cannot—say

The numbers put Nintendo ahead on average score and on the number of games above 80, while Xbox has the reported top individual score. The average gap is relatively small, and the Xbox discrepancy makes a precise comparison less certain. Metacritic scores alone also cannot establish a publisher’s strategy or explain why a slate performed as it did.

These are results for games released by the time of the reports, not final year-end standings. Further releases or changes to review aggregates could alter the totals and averages, so Nintendo’s lead should be treated as a snapshot rather than a verdict on the full 2026 slate. 29