Best Video Games of 2026 So Far: 10 Releases That Captivated the World

If you tried to name the best video games of 2026 back in March, you’d have been wrong by May. The number one game of the year has changed hands at least four times already, and we’re barely past the halfway mark. That’s not a knock on any single title. It’s a sign of how stacked this year is.

So here’s the honest verdict up front. As of late June, the highest-rated game of 2026 is Mina the Hollower, sitting around 92 on Metacritic, with Forza Horizon 6 a hair behind and Resident Evil Requiem outselling everything else on the calendar. I’ve been tracking review scores, sales milestones, and player counts week by week since January. This roundup is the short version of who actually won the first half, and which games are worth your money and your storage space right now.

How I picked these. Every game below released between January 1 and June 23, 2026. I ranked by a blend of critic scores (Metacritic and OpenCritic), commercial performance (units sold, concurrent players), and staying power in the conversation. Scores are pulled from public aggregators and rounded to the nearest point, since several of these launched in the last few weeks and counts are still climbing. No game made the list on hype alone.

Last verified: June 23, 2026. Sources: Metacritic, OpenCritic, Wikipedia “2026 in video games,” and publisher sales announcements. Scores for recent releases (Mina, Forza, 007) are still settling as more reviews land. What changed: full rewrite for the 2026 release calendar. May change soon: Grand Theft Auto VI lands November 19, and that reshuffles everything.

The best video games of 2026 at a glance

If you only have thirty seconds, this table is the whole article. It’s the ten 2026 releases that earned their spot, with the score, the platforms, and the one reason each one matters. The deep dives come after.

Game	Released	Score	Platforms	Why it made the list
Mina the Hollower	May 29	~92	PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch / Switch 2	Year’s highest-rated game so far
Forza Horizon 6	May 19	~91	PC, Xbox (PS5 later)	6M players in a week; first Japan setting
Resident Evil Requiem	Feb 27	~88	PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, PC	Fastest-selling game in series history
Pokémon Pokopia	Mar 5	~89	Switch 2	Highest-rated Pokémon game ever
007 First Light	May 27	~88	PS5, PC, Xbox	Best Bond game in 30 years
Saros	Apr 30	~87	PS5	Housemarque’s Returnal follow-up
Pragmata	Apr 17	~86	PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch 2	Capcom’s bold new sci-fi IP
Mewgenics	Feb 10	~88	PC	From the Binding of Isaac creator
Planet of Lana II	Mar 5	Acclaimed	PC, PS, Xbox, Switch	Most beautiful puzzle-platformer of the year
Crimson Desert	Mar 19	~78	PC, PS5, Xbox	6M+ sold despite mixed reviews

Mina the Hollower: the year’s highest-rated game

Right now, the best-reviewed video game of 2026 is a gothic action-adventure that looks like a lost Game Boy Color cartridge. Mina the Hollower sits around 92 on Metacritic, the top spot for the year, and it comes from Yacht Club Games, the studio behind Shovel Knight.

You play a hollower named Mina, burrowing through a cursed island with a whip and a small arsenal of trinkets. The combat owes a lot to old-school Castlevania, the exploration to Zelda, but the feel is entirely its own. It sold 300,000 copies in three days and crossed half a million inside two weeks. For a studio that called this one make-or-break, that’s a strong start. If you grew up on top-down action games and want something that respects your reflexes without wasting your time, start here. You can find it on Yacht Club Games‘ site across PC, PS5, Xbox, and both Switch models.

Forza Horizon 6: 6 million players in a week

Forza Horizon 6 took the racing crown and briefly the whole year’s crown, peaking around 91 on Metacritic. Playground Games moved the festival to a stylized Japan for the first time, and the response was immediate: more than 6 million players in roughly a week, the biggest launch in the series’ history.

What still amazes me about Horizon is how it makes an open-world racer feel like a theme park. Cherry-blossom mountain passes, neon Tokyo streets, rain-soaked coastal roads, all stitched together without a loading screen in sight. On Steam it tripled the franchise’s previous concurrent-player record. It also landed on Xbox Game Pass day one, which is the cheapest way to play it if you don’t want to buy outright. Official details live at forza.net.

Resident Evil Requiem: the best-selling game of the year so far

If we ranked by raw sales instead of scores, Resident Evil Requiem wins the first half outright. Capcom’s survival-horror entry moved 6 million copies in under three weeks and crossed 7 million by late April, the fastest-selling game in the entire Resident Evil franchise.

It sits around 88 on Metacritic, which makes it the best-reviewed mainline Resident Evil since RE4 back in 2005. That’s not a small claim. The dual-protagonist structure keeps the dread fresh, and Capcom’s RE Engine still makes the most convincing horror lighting in the business. If you’ve been away from the series since the remakes, this is the one to come back for. Find it on the official Resident Evil site across PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, and PC.

Pokémon Pokopia: the highest-rated Pokémon game ever

Pokémon Pokopia is the best-reviewed Pokémon game of all time, sitting around 89 on Metacritic. You play as a Ditto that’s transformed into a human and tasked with rebuilding an overgrown island, which is a wild premise even by Pokémon standards.

Think Animal Crossing crossed with Minecraft, wearing a Pokémon skin. It’s a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, and it did exactly what Nintendo hoped: 2.2 million copies in the first four days, more than 4 million by May, and a measurable spike in Switch 2 sales in Japan. The Switch 2, by the way, launched in June 2025, so 2026 is its first full year, and games like this are why it’s selling faster than any Nintendo console before it. You can read more about how the video game industry has shifted toward this kind of cozy, sandbox design.

007 First Light: the best Bond game in three decades

007 First Light is the best-reviewed James Bond game in about 30 years, landing around 88 and becoming IO Interactive’s highest-scoring game ever. That’s the same studio behind the Hitman trilogy, so the stealth pedigree was never in doubt.

This one’s an origin story. A young Bond, freshly minted as a double-O, learning the job the hard way. IO took the methodical, systemic sandbox design from Hitman and wrapped it around a character everyone already knows, and it works far better than it had any right to. It slipped from its March date to a May 27 launch, and the extra polish shows. Details are at IO Interactive, on PS5, PC, and Xbox.

Saros: Housemarque’s follow-up to Returnal

Saros is the new roguelite from Housemarque, the studio that made Returnal, and it sits around 87 on PS5. If you loved the bullet-hell chaos and tight gunplay of Returnal, this is more of that, refined.

I’ll be honest about the split, though. GameSpot gave it a 9 and called it better than Returnal in every meaningful way. IGN landed at a 7 and found the loop repetitive. Both takes are fair, and which one matches you depends entirely on how you feel about dying, restarting, and learning a planet’s patterns over dozens of runs. It’s a PS5 exclusive, set on the doomed world of Carcosa. More on PlayStation.

Pragmata: Capcom’s bold new sci-fi gamble

Pragmata is the year’s most interesting risk: a brand-new Capcom IP, delayed for years, that finally launched in April to around 86 on Metacritic and a 97% “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam. It sold a million copies in two days and 2 million inside 16, which is rare air for an original property with no franchise behind it.

It’s set on a lunar research station, and the combat is a hybrid you have to feel to understand: you shoot enemies with one hand while real-time hacking them with the other. Sounds like it shouldn’t work. It does. New IP is hard, and a big publisher betting on one in 2026 is exactly the kind of thing I want to see more of. Capcom’s catalog lives at capcom.com.

Mewgenics: a decade in the making

Mewgenics finally exists, and it was worth the wait. This is the long-delayed cat-breeding roguelike from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, the team behind The Binding of Isaac, and it launched in February to roughly 88 from critics.

You breed an absurd lineage of cats, each with randomized traits, then send them into turn-based tactical fights. It’s weird, funny, and far deeper than the premise suggests, which is the McMillen signature. If you’ve sunk a hundred hours into Isaac, you already know whether this is for you. It’s on PC.

Planet of Lana II: the most beautiful game of 2026

Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf is the prettiest game I’ve played this year, full stop. The cinematic puzzle-platformer from Wishfully and Thunderful trades almost entirely on hand-painted art direction and quietly clever puzzle design.

It’s not a long game, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s the kind of thing you finish in a weekend and remember for months. The second half, in particular, layers its puzzles in ways the first game never reached. If you want a breather between the year’s bigger, louder releases, this is it. It launched across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch via Thunderful.

Crimson Desert: the sales-versus-reviews story

Crimson Desert is the most interesting disconnect of the year. Pearl Abyss’ open-world action game sold more than 2 million copies in its first 24 hours, 3 million in a week, and over 6 million within three months. By sales, it’s a monster.

By reviews? It sits around 78, the lowest score on this list, and Pearl Abyss’ stock reportedly dropped about 30% on the muted critical reception. So why’s it here? Because 6 million people voting with their wallets is its own kind of verdict, and the combat and world design genuinely impressed players even where critics found the story and pacing uneven. It’s a useful reminder that scores and sales don’t always agree. Worth a look on PC, PS5, and Xbox via Pearl Abyss.

The biggest game releases 2026 still has coming

The first half was loaded. The second half might be bigger. Here’s what’s still on the 2026 calendar, and the dates worth circling.

• Grand Theft Auto VI (November 19) is the headline release of the year, maybe the decade. Rockstar already pushed it once, from an earlier May target, so I’d hold the date loosely until it’s truly locked. But if it lands, it instantly becomes the best-selling game of 2026.
• Marvel’s Wolverine (September 15) is Insomniac’s next big PS5 exclusive, from the studio that made the Spider-Man games. Expectations are sky-high.
• Halo: Campaign Evolved (July 28) is a full Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Halo, and for the first time it’s coming to PlayStation 5 alongside Xbox and PC. That alone is a headline.
• Gears of War: E-Day (expected September) brings the franchise back to its origins. No firm date yet, so treat that window as an estimate.

That’s before you count the steady stream of smaller releases and the free Hollow Knight: Silksong expansion coming later in the year. If 2026 already feels stacked, the holiday stretch is going to be brutal on both your wallet and your free time.

What you need to play 2026’s best games

Here’s the practical part. Half these games are 60 to 100 GB installs, and the ones that aren’t still benefit from the right setup. A few things genuinely change the experience, and a few are just nice to have.

• Storage first. If you’re on PS5, a fast external SSD for your PS5 is the single best upgrade. Resident Evil Requiem and Forza Horizon 6 alone will eat your internal drive. Grab one from a trusted external SSD listing.
• For PC players, the graphics card still decides everything. If you want Forza or Crimson Desert at high settings, see my picks for the best graphics card for gaming or browse current graphics card deals. Not sure PC is even worth it? Here’s what a gaming PC actually buys you.
• Game Pass is the value play. Forza Horizon 6 was free on day one for subscribers. A month of Xbox Game Pass costs less than a single new release.
• Don’t sleep on audio. Horror games like Requiem live and die on sound. You don’t need to spend a fortune, just check my list of the best gaming headsets under $50.
• Online play needs bandwidth. If you’re jumping into multiplayer, here’s the internet speed you actually need for gaming without rage-quitting over lag.

So which 2026 games should you actually play?

If you can only play one game from the first half of 2026, the data points to Mina the Hollower for pure quality, Resident Evil Requiem if you want the game everyone’s talking about, and Forza Horizon 6 if you just want to lose a weekend grinning at a screen.

But the real story of the best video games of 2026 isn’t any single title. It’s the spread. A Game Boy-style indie, a Pokémon life-sim, a Japanese racer, a survival-horror giant, and a brand-new Capcom IP all landed in the same six months and all found their audience. That doesn’t happen in a weak year. And with GTA VI, Wolverine, and a Halo remake still ahead, the back half is set up to be even louder. Bookmark this page. I’ll keep it current as the scores settle and the holiday releases land.

Best video games of 2026: frequently asked questions

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