Baldur's Gate 3 has overtaken Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to become Metacritic's top-reviewed game of 2023

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But it could still change

Baldur's Gate 3 volo eye
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Baldur's Gate 3 is now Metacritic's best-reviewed game of 2023, overtaking The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The recently released Larian Studios title clearly has a lot of fans already, as it has shot up to the top of Metacritic's Top Games chart with an fantastic 97 Metascore. This is made even more impressive when you realize that previously Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had that top spot with a Metascore of 96.

It's important to note that Tears of the Kingdom's score is based on 145 critic reviews, whereas Baldur's Gate 3 currently only has 14 critic reviews. This is mostly because a lot of outlets, including us with our Baldur's Gate 3 review in progress, are yet to give the RPG a final score. What this means is that the Metascore could go either way from here - it could firmly stay at the top of the list or fall down slightly, but only time will tell. 

This hasn't taken anything away from Baldur's Gate 3 though, as its developers have been celebrating reaching the milestone over on Twitter. Michael Douse, Larian Studios' director of publishing, shared a screenshot of the game's Metacritic page along with an emoji of a person bowing, which says it all really. After this, Baldur's Gate 3's composer Borislav Slavov quote retweeted Douse's tweet adding: "Speechless...Happy...Grateful." 

It'll be interesting to see if the next big RPG coming our way, Starfield, will be any match for Baldur's Gate 3 or Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in terms of its review scores. If so, we have well and truly been spoilt with great games this year and will no doubt have a difficult time working out what this year's Game of the Year will be. No pressure, Bethesda. 

Find out everything you need (or didn't want to) know about the Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix 2.

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Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

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