Move over Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 is the highest rated game of the year now
Zelda is still doing pretty well for itself, though.
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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is no longer the best reviewed game of 2023, as Baldur's Gate 3 has now taken the top spot.
Up until recently, it was looking like Tears of the Kingdom was a shoo-in for the highest rated game of the year, as it held that spot since it launched on Metacritic. It held tightly onto that spot, and was even the highest rated game of all time on OpenCritic. Now though, Baldur's Gate 3 is stealing the limelight - the Dungeons & Dragons inspired RPG is currently sitting at a score of 97 on Metacritic, putting it one point higher than Tears of the Kingdom, cementing it as the highest rated game of the year.
It is slightly important to note that there is quite a big disparity in how many reviews either game has. At the time of writing, Tears of the Kingdom's score is based on 145 critic reviews, whereas Baldur's Gate 3 is only based on 21. That obviously means that Tears of the Kingdom has a much higher chance of having scored lower. Another thing to consider is that Baldur's Gate 3 is only on PC, so not every site will have reviewed it yet. Plus, it's a massive game, with 170 hours in just cutscenes alone, so some outlets might not even have their reviews out yet.
All of which to say, none of this really matters, it's just some review scores, just go and enjoy either one of them!
Baldur's Gate 3 really has been doing quite well for itself, though. Not only is it now the highest rated game of the year, it's also the ninth most played game on Steam of all time. A very impressive feat for a single-player game, and something that's just as much a surprise to developer Larian as it might be to you.