New Pokemon Game Is the Highest Rated in the Franchise’s History

The newest game in the Pokemon series has shockingly become the highest-rated in the franchise’s history. With Pokemon having now been around for 30 years, the series has received dozens of stellar titles over the decades, many of which are considered some of the most important games ever. And while some more recent Pokemon games have received pushback from longtime fans, the latest game tied to the property is setting new heights when it comes to critical acclaim.

As of this week, on March 5th, Pokemon Pokopia is set to release on Nintendo Switch 2 and will become the newest spin-off in the series. Prior to this launch, reviews for Pokopia have today dropped, and they’ve been incredibly high, to say the least. Currently on Metacritic, Pokopia boasts an impressive average review score of 89/100, which makes it the top-rated game of 2026. When looking outside of this year alone, though, Pokopia is also setting some surprising records.

Based on data solely from Metacritic, Pokopia is now the best-reviewed Pokemon game ever. It’s currently slotted just above Pokemon X/Y, Pokemon Black/White, Pokemon Sun/Moon, and Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver, which were previously all scored at an average of 87/100. For Pokopia to end up reviewing better than all of these classic Pokemon titles is something completely unexpected, and shows just how good this new spin-off really is.

Is This Truly the Best Pokemon Game Ever?

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It’s obviously worth stressing that reviews have changed a lot over the years, which means that Pokemon games that were released in the 90s or early 2000s would very likely score differently now than they once did. Pokemon Red and Blue, which were a phenomenon in the 1990s and kick-started the entire Pokemon craze, would surely have scored in the 90s on Metacritic if video game publications were more common back in the day. As such, it’s hard to directly compare Pokopia to each Pokemon game that has come before it when accounting for these changes to game reviews.

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Still, if you had Pokemon Pokopia on your radar, it’s clear that the game is excellent and is one of the first must-have titles on Nintendo Switch 2 this year. If you’re interested in learning more about Pokopia, you can check out our own glowing review right here.

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