The console war continues, with Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox constantly releasing high-quality new titles in an attempt to compete for dominance in the console market. Looking at 2026, Nintendo has already gained a competitive advantage in a key aspect.
So far, Nintendo has had a very impressive performance this year, successively launching blockbuster titles such as "Pokémon Pokopia" and "Interstellar Fox." The company continues to rely on its own IP as the core selling point of its consoles, and the upcoming remastered version of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is a great example of this. It is also one of the most anticipated games for 2026.
IT Home noticed that after gaming media The Gamer compiled data on first-party games from Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox game studios on the Metacritic platform, it was found that as of 2026, Nintendo is in the leading position, with its new titles averaging 80.33 points. This statistics do not include ported versions, additional content, or remakes, but complete remakes are included in the calculation. Notably, Nintendo also released the most first-party games this year among the three companies, with a total of nine; PlayStation and Xbox each released six games. Six of Nintendo's new games in 2026 scored over 80 points on average, while only three of PlayStation and Xbox's first-party titles reached this standard.
Although the average score of Xbox's works is not as high as Nintendo's, among the three manufacturers, only Xbox has a game that scored 90 points on Metacritic, namely "Forza Horizon 6." After the review was released, this game was immediately regarded as a strong contender for Game of the Year, and it was also responsible for raising the overall average score of Xbox. Several manufacturers had games with significant score discrepancies; "Marvel Wolverine" and "Halo: Combat Evolved" did not receive the market response that their publishers had anticipated.
Although Nintendo appears to be in the lead based on the data, the overall average score difference between the three manufacturers is not significant. For all three platforms, this year's performance has been fairly good. Nintendo has consistently relied on exclusive games to retain its players; Sony, on the other hand, has begun to adjust its strategy by reducing porting to PC, striving to keep its own games on the PlayStation platform. Meanwhile, Xbox is also shifting towards a focus on home console exclusives, canceling the original plan to port "War Machines: Incident Day" to PS5 at a later stage of development, while still maintaining its presence in the PC market. In such an industry environment, high-quality first-party games are crucial for the success or failure of the platforms.
Nintendo has already delivered an impressive performance this year, and there is hope for even greater progress in 2027. Nintendo's major release next year is undoubtedly "Pokémon Legends: Arceus," which marks the official entry of the Pokémon series into its tenth generation. Other newly planned first-party titles include "Metroid: Dead End" and "Star Kirby: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate."
