{"id":5623,"date":"2026-03-15T01:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/new-nintendo-switch-2-exclusive-game-is-now-the-highest-rated-game-of-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T01:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T01:15:14","slug":"new-nintendo-switch-2-exclusive-game-is-now-the-highest-rated-game-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/new-nintendo-switch-2-exclusive-game-is-now-the-highest-rated-game-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"New Nintendo Switch 2 Exclusive Game Is Now the Highest-Rated Game of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Nintendo has stolen the crown from Capcom, and now a new Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive game is the highest-rated game of 2026, at least per Metacritic scores. We are three months deep into 2026, yet it feels like the year hasn\u2019t even started. The first quarter of 2026 has been pretty disappointing. This was especially the case in the first two months. In March, things are starting to heat up. Fittingly, the highest-rated game of 2026 so far is a March release. <\/p>\n

While its 89 on Metacritic is unlikely to hold up come the end of the year, Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive game Pokopia <\/em>is currently sitting at the top of Metacritic. Now, Resident Evil Requiem <\/em>also has the same score, but Pokopia<\/em> is closer to a 90, so it wins on a tiebreaker. That said, it is clearly very close because these two games have traded the crown for a third time now. To this end, just earlier this week, the Capcom game was winning the tiebreaker. <\/p>\n

Top 10 Highest-Rated New Games of 2026<\/h2>\n

Excluding ports, remasters, DLC, and expansions, the top ten highest-rated new games of 2026 are pretty varied and feature as many smaller indie games as big AAA productions, a testament to the current state of the AAA game development industry. <\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pokopia \u2013 89<\/li>\n
  2. Resident Evil Requiem \u2013 89<\/li>\n
  3. Mewgenics \u2013 88<\/li>\n
  4. Esoteric Ebb \u2013 87<\/li>\n
  5. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections \u2013 86<\/li>\n
  6. Perfect Tides: Station to Station \u2013 86<\/li>\n
  7. Nioh 3 \u2013 86<\/li>\n
  8. Cairn \u2013 85<\/li>\n
  9. Paranormasight: The Mermaid\u2019s Curse \u2013 85<\/li>\n
  10. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon \u2013 84<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Games Releasing Soon That May Dethrone Pokopia<\/h2>\n

    Assuming the new Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> game holds onto the top spot and keeps Resident Evil Requiem<\/em> in second place, there are some challengers releasing soon that could make its time at the top short-lived. For one, Crimson Desert<\/em> is out next week on March 19, and it looks poised to be one of the biggest releases of 2026. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Xbox console exclusive Replaced<\/em> is out in one month. And then on April 17, another one of 2026\u2019s biggest games, Capcom\u2019s Pragmata<\/em>, drops. Of course, there is also always the possibility of an indie game coming out of nowhere and earning critical success as well. <\/p>\n

    Pokopia <\/em>will certainly not hold onto this title for the whole year, but it could hold onto it for a while, and with an 89 on Metacritic, it could sneak into Game of the Year conversations come the end of the year.<\/p>\n

    All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Nintendo has stolen the crown from Capcom, and now a new Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive game is the highest-rated game of 2026, at least per Metacritic scores. We are three months deep into 2026, yet it feels like the year hasn\u2019t even started. The first quarter of 2026 has been pretty disappointing. This was especially<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[4442,206,5568,560,314],"class_list":{"0":"post-5623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upcoming-games","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-game","10":"tag-highestrated","11":"tag-nintendo","12":"tag-switch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}