Best and Worst Releases of 2023 by Metacritic Scores

With all of the yearly roundups released over the year, we'd be remiss not to feature one of the most important ones: Metacritic. With aggregated scores from all of the outlets out there, Metacritic is the perfect way to look at both the best and worst releases over the course of these last 12 months. And... well, it hasn't been an easy year.

We'll first start off with the best releases of 2023, wherein we see a tie for the top spot. Here are all of the games in order of their Metacritic score:

• Baldur's Gate 3 — 96 Metascore
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — 96 Metascore
• Metroid Prime Remastered — 94 Metascore
• Asgard's Wrath 2 — 93 Metascore
• Against the Storm — 93 Metascore
• Resident Evil 4 — 93 Metascore
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder — 92 Metascore
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass Wave 4 - Future Redeemed — 92 Metascore
• Street Fighter 6 — 92 Metascore
• Turbo Overkill — 91 Metascore

Surprising exactly no one, Baldur's Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom both share the #1 spot sitting comfortably at 96 Metascore. Though not quite the highest-rated games of all time — many titles, most notably, Nintendo titles and Grand Theft Auto, still beat these by a few points at least.

Still, Metacritic puts Baldur's Gate 3 at #1 spot, which is likely correlated to the 8.9 and 8.4 User Score that Baldur's Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom earned, respectively. The same logic can be applied to the amount of Critic Reviews both titles received, wherein the former still wins by three total reviews spanning three consoles.

Interestingly, however, Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Expansion Pass Wave 4 - Future Redeemed isn't technically a full release but instead a DLC for one of 2022's most beloved titles. Removing it from the top 10 would instead place Slay the Princess in the 10th slot (with a 90 Metascore), a title that our reviewer genuinely loved here at GameGrin.

Meanwhile, the worst videogames of 2023 aren't as close as all of the top games — it would be difficult to beat two three-way ties and one two-way tie. Here are the 10 worst games of 2023:

• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum — 34 Metascore
• Flashback 2 — 35 Metascore
• Greyhill Incident — 38 Metascore
• Quantum Error — 40 Metascore
• Testament: The Order of High-Human — 41 Metascore
• Crime Boss: Rockay City — 43 Metascore
• Hellboy: Web of Wyrd — 47 Metascore
• Gangs of Sherwood — 48 Metascore
• Loop8: Summer of Gods — 49 Metascore 
• Gargoyles Remastered — 49 Metascore

Interestingly enough, this list is inaccurate (even though it comes from the Metacritic blog itself). Though 2023's worst game really surprises no one — especially since it singlehandedly managed to make Daedalic close its development branch, keen-eyed bad-game connoisseurs will notice that some games are missing. 

Some of the most controversial titles of the year are missing, and they aren't part of the What Games to Play Right Now section (sorting by Metascore and going to the last page) — Skull Island: Rise of Kong and The Walking Dead: Destinies both trump The Lord of the Rings: Gollum by Metascore by a landslide, sporting 23 and 29 Metascore, respectively. Both of these titles were published by GameMill Entertainment.