Resident Evil Requiem could surpass Expedition 33’s 9.5 user score on Metacritic and we're right back in the GOTY race for 2026.
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Resident Evil Requiem hasn’t even been out for a week, but we can reckon that it’s already in the running for Game of the Year in 2026. Capcom’s ninth mainline entry in the survival horror franchise has already matched Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with a 9.5 user score on Metacritic.
Resident Evil Requiem currently has the highest user score of all time on Metacritic pic.twitter.com/JFGNDE1qMw
— Pirat_Nation 🔴 (@Pirat_Nation) March 2, 2026
The game came out on February 27 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. Within days, it has already been the most successful game in the franchise, crossing 340,000 concurrent players on Steam. But it might still be too early for the “better than Expedition 33” conversation.
Resident Evil Requiem Passes Expedition 33 To Top Metacritic Scores
As of the first week of March, 2026, Resident Evil Requiem currently has a 9.5 user score on Metacritic. This places it neck-and-neck with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which also has a 9.5 score. At certain points over the last few days, Requiem even overtook last year’s Game of the Year winner.
This new 9.5 rating has pushed the new Resident Evil title above legendary titles in Metacritic’s all-time user rankings and firmly into “greatest of all time” territory, at least according to user ratings. On the commercial side, the game is also the most successful in the franchise.
Resident Evil 4 Reviews are looking great.
IGN 10/10
Guardian 10/10
Easy Allies 10/10
VG247 10/10
GamingBolt 10/10
TheGamer 10/10
PlayStation LifeStyle 10/10
Push Square 10/10
Shacknews 10/10
TheSixthAxis 10/10
VGC 10/10
GameSpot 10/10
God is a Geek 10/10Metacritic 94 pic.twitter.com/kaZ4roTOri
— Shirrako (@ShirrakoGaming) March 17, 2023
The game peaked at well over 340,000 concurrent players on Steam during launch weekend and is one of the platform’s top-selling titles already this year. The game also has a strong critic score, sitting at an 88 on Metacritic, and reviewers have praised its technical polish, gameplay, and how it evolves the franchise’s style.
The “Better Than Expedition 33” Debate Isn’t So Simple
Despite this extraordinary store, the numbers behind the 9.5 ratings tell a more complicated story. Metacritic’s user score is a straight average of submitted ratings. At the time of writing, Resident Evil Requiem has just under 3,000 user reviews.
On the other hand, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s 9.5 score is an average across nearly 25,000 reviews, a much larger sample size. That difference matters. The more reviews a game has, the harder it becomes to maintain such a high average. That’s because each additional score has less impact on the overall rating.
It’s official: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has surpassed Elden ring in overall GOTY awards. Just insane:
– Most awarded game of all time
– Most awarded game at the Geoff GOTY awards ever
– Helped turn based games become popular again
– Highest rated user Metacritic game ever
🤯 pic.twitter.com/QAwY7CJ2EI— Pyo 5️⃣ (@mrpyo1) January 20, 2026
So technically, since Requiem has a smaller pool of reviews, its average is more volatile and more susceptible to change as it gets more and more reviews. In other words, both games have the same 9.5 on the surface, but they’re not quite the same.
For Requiem to truly surpass Expedition 33 in a real way, it would need tens of thousands of additional overwhelmingly positive reviews, which is a tall order, especially for a survival horror title. Expedition 33’s RPG structure and emotional storytelling appeal to a lot more players than Survival horror.
For now, the two games are still tied at 9.5, and they may continue trading places as more reviews roll in. We’ll have to wait and see if Resident Evil Requiem keeps its momentum long enough to really surpass last year’s Game of the Year.
How are you enjoying Resident Evil Requiem? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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