'Resident Evil Requiem' Has Shockingly Already Been Dethroned as Game of the Year, According to Metacritic

The release of Resident Evil Requiem was arguably one of the most anticipated moments for video games in 2026. Now that the dust has settled, the game was thought by many to be a 2026 Game of the Year frontrunner, but mere days after its release, Resident Evil Requiem is no longer the best-reviewed game of 2026.

According to Metacritic's aggregated review averages for Pokémon Pokopia, the game has a current metascore of 89, making it the best-reviewed game of 2026, usurping Resident Evil Requiem, which has a metascore of 88, according to Metacritic. However, it is worth noting that Pokémon Pokopia has only about half as many critic reviews as Requiem.

On Metacritic's "Best Games This Year" list, Pokémon Pokopia is now number one.

In terms of user score, there isn't a user score available yet for Pokémon Pokopia, but Resident Evil Requiem is currently one of the highest-rated games of all time by that metric, just slightly behind last year's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has a user score of 9.5/10 with almost 25,000 reviews.

Pokémon Pokopia is a cozy Pokémon life simulator game, in which players can play as a Ditto pretending to be a human and construct their own game worlds to befriend Pokémon and restore the world.

The game is seeing a lot of praise for its life simulator elements, storylines, and respect to the Pokémon franchise.

In particular, GamesRadar+ called the game, "a brilliantly bizarre blend of Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and Viva Piñata, and despite its many influences, manages to be a unique spin-off for the Pokémon series that's also an accomplished life sim."

With the sheer excitement and marketing for Resident Evil Requiem, and the general overall positive reception to the game, it seemed like Requiem was on track to top the video game review leaderboards for at least the first half of 2026. Now, a smaller, more niche title has taken the top spot.

Pokémon Pokopia is available on Thursday, March 5, for Nintendo Switch 2.

Resident Evil Requiem is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.