// Welcome to GCR’s Video Game Power Rankings

Welcome to something new!

For those unfamiliar with power rankings, it’s the practice of taking a list of things (99% of the time it’s sports teams, where I got the inspiration for this article) and ranking them from best to worst.

The idea being that you revisit the list at regular intervals – this series will be quarterly – and adjust the rankings based on their performance since the previous list was made.

Traditionally, this will factor in things like how well a team is playing, if they have any injuries to key players, or if they’ve made some beneficial trades.

This list is for video game developers / publishers, so we’ll need new metrics.

For my power rankings, I’ll be generally considering the following:

• Recent releases and how they scored
• Sales figures
• Scandals and layoffs
• General public opinion of the company
• My own personal opinion of the company

Keep in mind that this is meant to be a topical list, not an all-time list. A massive organization that has just been coasting for three months will likely fall somewhere in the middle, with no recent positive or negative factors.

If Epic Games drops a stinker, they might find themselves low on the list, despite the Fortnite money being a constant.

Generally, I picked from the top 50 companies by revenue, and included some additional ones I felt deserved to be in the discussion.

In instances where a company is owned by another, I’ve tried to go with the parent company for the list. This gets complicated when some companies are owned in part by others. For example, I would not count Unisoft successes for Tencent despite them owning a minority part of that company.

On the other side of the coin, I did not list all the studios owned by Sony or Microsoft independently, since they are fully owned. Plus, those guys make a big stink about their first-party lineup.

I also didn’t really get into the indie or AA spaces. The list would simply be too long. I want this to represent the big movers and shakers of the industry, and how their successes and failures might impact the overall gaming landscape.

Want more indie game coverage? Well you can check out our monthly Indie Watch series..

Let’s get into the list

// 1. Nintendo

They finally did it. Q1 2025 is when the Switch 2 was revealed. Sure, the leaks took some wind out of their sails, but they did it.

The hype will only grow in April with the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Unless they bungle it. The internet is abuzz with theories and speculation about what games will be there, and how well their new machine will perform.

On that note, check out what we would like to see out of the Switch 2 here.

Pokémon Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4 are both highly anticipated titles on the horizon. Nintendo is in a great spot. Once GTA6 is delayed into 2026, the Switch 2 will almost certainly be the year’s biggest item.

// 2. Sega

Sega has been releasing some great games. Even the latest Sonic game was good! That’s nothing short of a miracle.

Pirate Yakuza, Shadow Generations, and Metaphor: ReFantazio were all hot releases for Sega recently. Upcoming you have Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, Sonic Rumble, and Virtual Fighter 5.

They also have plans to invest more heavily in Atlus, Ryu Ga Gotoku, and Sonic Team. Although this will come at the cost of fewer new full games overall.

Sega is riding high on some strong releases and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The success of Sonic 3 (the movie) was also great for them.

// 3. Capcom

Capcom has consistently been able to put out great games on time and on budget. When everyone lays off half their team, I say, “why can’t you be more like Capcom.”

Although Monster Hunter Wilds has some performance issues on PC, it was an absolute stellar success in both it’s critical reception and sales. 1.3 million peak players on Steam and 8 million sales in 3 days were both records for Capcom.

Their revival of Onimusha and anticipated Resident Evil 9 announcement are also front-of-mind for a lot of video game enjoyers. I won’t give them too much credit for something unannounced, but given how much this titles comes up in the space, it’s worth mentioning.

This lineup might be smaller than some others listed here, but Capcom’s year-over-year goodwill with gamers and the recent smashing success of MH:Wilds earn them a high ranking.

// 4. Xbox

If I had been writing this last year, I suspect Xbox might’ve been the company with the most growth. This time last year they were washed, man.

But now? A lot of folks think they have the most exciting lineup of 2025.

You’ve seen the titles, but I’ll list them anyway: South of Midnight, Doom: The Dark Ages, Expedition 33, The Outer Worlds 2. This is an addition to the ongoing flood of smaller games available on GamePass.

In recent releases, Indiana Jones shocked everyone and was actually good, and Avowed had good reception, if not the great reception people expected.

We can’t turn a blind eye to Call of Duty either, which pushed Microsoft to the top of the charts as a publisher last year.

In terms of detractors, Fable was delayed, but we all knew that was going to happen. 

Murmurings of an Xbox handheld, as well as Xbox’s ongoing ambitions to let you play games any-damn-where you please, show good initiative.

Xbox titles heading to Playstation, and their murky future in terms of direction, has left some people cold. I, however, think their willingness to adapt and change is a good sign. Plus, is makes for exciting news and speculation.

// 5. Koei Tecmo

Not a name you see blowing up the headlines all that often, Koei Tecmo is really killing it out here. Their current lineup consists of Atelier Yuma, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, Ninja Gaiden II: Black, Ninja Gaiden 4, Dynasty Warrior Origins – all released or coming soon.

Reviews for the titles already released have been solid. Digging through their reports, the past 6 months also seem to have been financially successful as well.

KT is in a good spot, and they only stand to keep moving in that direction.

// 6. Konami

Hot off the presses: Silent Hill F! This game looks very exciting, and a decent amount of this positioning is the recency and hype from the announcement. Sure, there’s some writer bias there. But that’s just the way these things go!

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater drops later this year. Also worth noting are the Suikoden remasters, and Darwin’s Paradox! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but is Konami back?

// 7. Bandai Namco

Tekken 8 and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero were huge hits last year.

Digimon Story Time Stranger was just announced to the hoots and hollers of digital monster fans everywhere. Shadow Labyrinth, the unique take on Pac-Man, has also got some eyes on it.

Of course, their biggest upcoming game is Elden Ring: Nightreign. This has the potential to be a blockbuster of a live-service game, depending on how much they and FROM decide to sell their souls for money. 

Teams ranked higher have more games with more mass appeal.

Sure, Elden Ring is a massive name. Is this too low to rank them? We’ll see how the game hits and where these folks hand in the next ranking.

// 8. NetEase

Marvel Rivals is still rocking a 200k player count at any given time. It’s been a wild success at a time when having a live service wild success is nearly impossible. 

They seem to have a good flow of content and the people are eager to keep coming back for it.

Aside from this, Naraka Bladepoint is still cooking a few years after release with a similar daily player count (180k peak). Their most recent game, FragPunk, hasn’t had the exact same highs. It’s met some criticism for being too microtransaction-ey. They also had to delay the console releases.

Not a great look, but FragPunk is a much smaller release for them, so it’s unlikely to cause too much damage.

// 9. 2K

WWE 2K25 release to good reviews last week, and the rest of the 2k sports games will keep churning in the cosmic background noise of the gaming realm.

Civilization VII released to pretty good scores. They were lowed than the series historically hits, but it was by no means a failure.

Mafia: The Old Country,  and Borderlands 4 are both scheduled for this year. Mafia remains dateless, but BL4 is due in September. I suspect Mafia’s release hinges on the release of GTA. Considering they are both under the Take Two umbrella, there will certainly plan accordingly.

If they can get all their games out as planned, we should be looking at a solid year for 2k. Currently, I think they’re off to a good start.

// 10. Rockstar

I elected to break out Rockstar and 2K as separate entries from Take Two Interactive. Honestly, it’s because of GTA. I don’t think many people get excited for Take Two when they think of GTAVI. Additionally, I think people view their two portfolios as entirely separate entities.

Not saying that’s actually true, but in conversation, I don’t think people really view Borderlands and Grand Theft Auto as coming from the same place.

That said, Rockstar can only go so far on hype alone. The fact that they are this high on the list because of one trailer released months ago tells you how big a deal that game will be. We’re all tuned to anything with the stink of GTA news, so expect big movements for Rockstar on this list three months from now. Hopefully.

// 11. Tencent

These guys are an interesting case, because they have their fingers in a lot of pies. By sheer economic force, they are very powerful. But this is a GCR Power Ranking, it’s about more than just the ones and zeros innit?

Some of their larger upcoming works includes a mobile version of Final Fantasy XIV by Lightspeed Studios, and Honor of Kings: World, an open world RPG based in the world of Honor of Kings (the highest grossing mobile game of all time, which they also own).

League of Legends, Pokémon Unite, Fortnite, and Clash of Clans are all huge, ongoing titles that are in Tencent’s portfolio. These rankings are more about the recent actions of a company, but give how popular these games continue to be, they can’t be ignored.

Digging around through the various companies they own, they don’t really seem to have any massive imminent releases that I see being talked about. I also don’t think most people really like Tencent buying up everything under the sun.

Tencent feels like an inevitability, not a celebration. These days you hear more about the almighty Tencent more than you hear about new games they are making. I can’t deny the power they hold, but I don’t have to like it. So they are squarely in the middle of the list. 

// 12. CD Project Red

To some extent, CDPR is still riding the high of fixing Cyberpunk. In addition to this, the announcement of The Witcher 4 has got a lot of people excited about the future.

It’s still too far away to push them up too far on this list, but they are in a good spot. The Witcher Remake will likely also do well for them.

Their three additional projects (Project Hadar, Project Orion, Project Sirius) will likely be exciting, but I’m not counting things coming out on the PS6 in today’s rankings.

// 13. Larian Studios

These guys are still cooking. They’re still working on Baldur’s Gate 3. Recent additions include working on adding cross-play, as well as split-screen for Xbox consoles.

It will be a long while before their next game, but their prestige and good will from the gaming community at large gives them a decent rank here. 

// 14. EA

Split Fiction dropped and it was HOT HOT HOT. Critically, it knocked it out of the park, and it’s already sold 2 million copies at the time of writing. That’s half a mil more than Dragon Age: The Veilguard, for comparison.

Speaking of, the failure of Dragon Age and the restructuring of Bioware has left a bad taste in people’s mouth.

Apex Legends has also been underperforming lately. EA is thinking of new ways – including an Apex 2.0 – to try and turn the money faucets back on again.

They have a lot of planned titles for the future. A new battlefield, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Black Panther, and more. These all float around untitled and without a release window. I think the consensus from most people is more akin to, “I hope these games actually release,” as opposed to, “I can’t wait for those games.”

Split Fiction is the only thing propping up EA on this ranking.

// 15. Epic

Fortnite good. Epic Games Store bad. They are a universal constant. 

// 16. MiHoYo

Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero are all rolling along. MiHoYo is 9th on the game-companies-by-revenue list, so clearly it’s working out for them.

// 17. Niantic

Niantic was chugging away as usual, until they sold their gaming business to Saudi-owned Scopely.

Selling things to one of the world’s best human-rights-violators does not usually go well, and this news was met with the disappointment you might expect.

Scopley is already in the mobile game business, and they’re very good at it. By that, I mean, they are very good at making a boat-load of cash. Don’t be surprised if we see more aggressive monetization in Pokémon Go.

// 18. Playstation

I love Playstation, and I get no joy putting them this low on the list.

Their dive into live-service games has tripped them up and cost them almost a full gaming generation’s worth of time from some developers. Concord is still fresh on everyone’s mind. When a live-service goes out of business, you’ll see people saying they, “pulled a Concord.”

In addition to one of gaming’s largest and most expensive fuck-ups, they’ve also been floundering in some other areas. More recently, they held a State of Play that did not go over as well as they might’ve hoped (although I actually thought it was pretty good).

Ghost of Yotei is going to be their big 2025 release, assuming it does release this year. We are still waiting for a date. Wolverine, Saros, Intergalactic, and Marathon are all 2026 and beyond.

They goofed another PC port recently as well with Rise of Ronin.

The Sony Pony in me is excited about the long-term, but it’s hard to be too excited about the right-now.

// 19. Embracer Group

I struggle to think of a group that has bungled more video game companies than Embracer Group.

They’ve spent the past two years going into debt, laying off thousand of people, and cancelling dozens of projects. In 2024 alone, they cut their workforce in half.

Thankfully, they have sold off some of their studios instead of just killing them, so some games may actually be made.

They also do have some games coming out. Most of them I haven’t heard of before. Some might be winners, though. These include the Gothic Remake, the TMNT Last Ronin game, and Killing Floor 3 (which just suffered its own delay).

The slight edge they have over the lower entries on this list is the recent release of Kingdom Come Deliverance II. That released to incredible reviews. Embracer is three levels of subsidiary removed from this game, so the average Joe doesn’t give them much credit for it. But we will give them some. Only some.

// 20. Ubisoft

All eyes are on Ubisoft right now. With chatter of their potential sale fluttering around the forums of the internet constantly, it feels like it’s only a matter of time.

Their numerous franchises have not been performing. All hopes for them seem to rest on the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadow. This was written before those reviews drop, so it will be very interesting to see where Ubi falls three months from now.

I don’t think that even a wild success of AC Shadows can save Ubisoft. Let’s say they have a crazy launch and are met with critical praise. What’s next?

One great AC game doesn’t fix their ship, but one bad one might just sink it.

// 21. WB Games

What a disaster this quarter has been for Warner Brother’s Games. Nothing but bad press and game closures. They shut the doors of Monolith, Player-First games, and WB Games San Diego.

They also put the axe to the in-development Wonder Woman game.

This is coming off the heels of a failure in both Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Multiverses. They plan to focus their gaming efforts into recognizable IP like Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and their DC stuff.

Their only real success since Hogwarts Legacy (released in 2023) is a Batman VR game.

Now, WB has a ton of very talented studios in their portfolio. The question remains: Can the suits stay out of the way long enough for them to make some good video games? My hopes are not high.