The 2026 AAA Year So Far: Capcom's Run, Forza's Japan and a 96 for Zelda
With GTA VI days away, 2026 is already one of the strongest years for big games in a long time. Here is every major release ranked by real critic scores, what sold, what disappointed, and what is left.
Here is a strange fact about 2026: the best-reviewed game of the year is 28 years old. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, rebuilt for Switch 2 and released on November 5, opened at 96 on Metacritic. Only the 1998 original, at 99, scores higher in the series.
It is a fitting headline for a year that has been loaded with quality from the first week of February. With Grand Theft Auto VI arriving on November 19, here is where the year stands.
The scoreboard
OpenCritic scores for the major releases, as of mid-November:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2, Nov 5): 95
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered (Sep 29): 91
- Forza Horizon 6 (May 19): 91
- Resident Evil Requiem (Feb 27): 89
- Pokemon Pokopia (Mar 5): 89
- Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave (Sep 17): 89
- Phantom Blade Zero (Oct 29): 88
- Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve (Oct 1): 88
- 007 First Light (May 27): 87
- Saros (Apr 30): 87
- Pragmata (Apr 17) and Nioh 3 (Feb 6): 86
- Gears of War: E-Day (Oct 6) and Onimusha: Way of the Sword (Sep 4): 85
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Oct 23): 84
The one big name that missed: Marvel's Wolverine (Sep 15), which settled in the mid-70s on both Metacritic and OpenCritic.
The list is also notable for who made it. Remasters and remakes are everywhere: Ocarina of Time, The Witcher 3, the Star Fox 64 remake. At the same time, two of the year's most talked-about action games, Phantom Blade Zero and Nioh 3, come from studios outside the usual Western and Japanese giants or from mid-sized publishers. A score in the high 80s no longer guarantees a place near the top: in 2026 that is simply the entry fee.
Capcom's year
No publisher has had a better 2026 than Capcom. It opened with Resident Evil Requiem on February 27, a survival horror game that splits its story between new heroine Grace Ashcroft, played in first person, and an older Leon S. Kennedy, played in third. It sold 5 million copies in five days, the fastest in Resident Evil history, and passed 7 million by late April. On Steam it peaked at 344,214 players over its launch weekend, double the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake.
Capcom followed with the sci-fi action game Pragmata in April, the creature-raising RPG Monster Hunter Stories 3 in March and the samurai action game Onimusha: Way of the Sword in September. All four scored 85 or higher on OpenCritic. Read more in our Resident Evil Requiem story.
Xbox's best year in a while
Microsoft's studios delivered two of the year's biggest hits. Playground Games' Forza Horizon 6 took the festival racer to Japan, with a stylised Tokyo five times larger than any previous Horizon city. It reached 6 million players within days and over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam. The launch was not entirely smooth: a 155 GB Steam pre-load was accidentally left unencrypted days before release, and pirates shared the files. It barely dented the game's momentum. A PS5 version follows on January 26, 2027. Our Forza Horizon 6 story has the details.
In October, Gears of War: E-Day returned to the night the Locust invasion began, 14 years before the first game, with Marcus and Dom as young soldiers. It scored 87 on Metacritic for Xbox. The other Xbox headliner, the Fable reboot, slipped to February 23, 2027.
PlayStation: highs and a wobble
Sony's year started quietly and got louder. Housemarque's roguelike shooter Saros, starring Rahul Kohli, launched on April 30 to an 87 on Metacritic. Ghost of Yotei got its free co-op mode, Legends, on March 10, followed on October 1 by a Complete Edition with the single-player expansion Echoes of Sekigahara. Death Stranding 2 reached PC on March 19.
The September tentpole, Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine, was a commercial success, with analysts estimating about 2 million copies sold in its first days, but its reviews made it the lowest-scored big single-player PlayStation game since Days Gone in 2019. See our Wolverine story.
Nintendo's second year
Switch 2's second year leaned on new ideas as much as sequels. Pokemon Pokopia, a cosy life sim in which a Ditto rebuilds Kanto, became the highest-rated Pokemon game on Metacritic at 89 and sold 2.2 million copies in four days. Star Fox, a remake of Star Fox 64 by Velan Studios, landed in June. Splatoon Raiders (July 23) has sold 2.42 million, and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave 1.34 million, as of September 30. Pokopia also got its first paid expansion, the underwater town Bubbly Basin, in August, which itself scores 88 on OpenCritic.
Then came Ocarina of Time. The remake adds a jump button, a free camera, full voice acting in major cutscenes and an explorable Castle Town, and it opened as the best-reviewed game of the year. Our Ocarina remake story has the review round-up.
Call of Duty bounces back, and a Korean setting
After Black Ops 7's rough 2025, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 arrived on October 23 with a campaign set largely in a war-torn South Korea and an 84 on Metacritic, the best score for a Call of Duty since 2011. It is also the first Call of Duty to launch on Switch 2. We cover it in our shooter war feature.
Why it matters, and what to watch
Two things stand out. First, the old guard is in form: Capcom, Playground, IO Interactive and Infinity Ward all delivered some of their best-reviewed work. Second, many publishers spent the year arranging their calendars around one game. Fable moved out of autumn, and the weeks around November 19 are close to empty of major releases.
WGC's take: 2026 has rewarded teams that refined a clear idea. Forza Horizon 6 is the series at its most polished, Requiem balances two styles of horror, and Ocarina of Time shows that a careful remake can feel new. The weakest reviews went to the game that felt the most familiar.
By the numbers
- 96: Ocarina of Time remake on Metacritic, the year's highest
- 5 million: Resident Evil Requiem sales in five days
- 6 million: Forza Horizon 6 players within days of launch
- 4 million: 007 First Light sales by August 20
- 84: Modern Warfare 4's Metacritic score, Call of Duty's best since 2011
- 19: points between Modern Warfare 4 and Black Ops 7 on Metacritic
What to watch: the big one is Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. After that, Monster Hunter Wilds comes to Switch 2 on December 4. Early 2027 is already crowded, with Forza Horizon 6 on PS5, Fable and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, all covered in our 2027 release calendar. And if you only play one 2026 game before GTA, make it Resident Evil Requiem.