The Witcher 3 Remastered Is Officially the Best-Reviewed Game of the Year
Overview & Key Takeaways
CD Project Red's update to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has a 94 rating on Metacritic. Can GTA 6 beat it?
It's 2026. Is an 11-year-old epic RPG really the best new release you can buy? Yes — according to Metacritic, anyway. At the review aggregation site, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered sits atop the ranking of all new releases for 2026, with a sky-high 94 Metascore.
Now, a few caveats. This score is based on just eight reviews, so it's not the biggest sample size. And those eight reviews are all based on the PC version. Other platforms haven't amassed enough reviews to get official Metascores, although the handful of reviews for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2 versions are all in the same 9-10 range.
It's not unusual for remakes, remasters, and reissues to top the Metacritic charts like this. It happened just last year: The best-reviewed game of 2025 was the Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A masterpiece is a masterpiece, after all. Classic games are classics because they stand the test of time. It's likely we'll see a similar result in a month's time for Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. (The original Ocarina is Metacritic's all-time champ, with an almost unbeatable score of 99.)
But the situation with The Witcher 3 Remastered is a little odd, due to how CD Projekt Red has released the new version of the game. It's technically not a new game at all; on most platforms, it's a free upgrade for owners of previous versions of The Witcher 3. On Steam, it doesn't even get a separate listing, just replacing the original game on the store and in your library.
This being the case, many publications have opted not to give Remastered a full review. That might also have had something to do with The Witcher 3 Remastered being a gigantic game and a known quantity, and review code arriving late at the busiest time of year. Those who have reviewed it, however, are seriously impressed.
Noisy Pixel's Azario Lopez reviewed the game at face value, never having played it before. "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered remains an exceptional RPG thanks to its memorable characters, outstanding side quests, and richly realized world," Lopez wrote in a 9/10 review. "Its combat and movement show their age, but the writing, exploration, progression, and sheer amount of quality content make it easy to understand why Geralt’s adventure has endured for so long."
Image: CD Projekt Red
Push Square's Robert Ramsey, playing on PS5, said that the game's overhauled combat was "the best it's ever been," and that Remastered was also "the best the RPG's ever looked." Visual improvements include the "redone lighting system and improved environmental assets, both of which add even more depth to what was already a richly detailed open world."
Over on Xbox Series X, Windows Central's Jennifer Young was wowed by how fun the game was to revisit, even for a "100th look." Remastered "successfully modernizes the classic with breathtaking visuals, a brilliant new dynamic camera system in combat, and heavily overhauled skill trees that make builds feel new once again," Young wrote in a five-star review.
Young was also impressed by the level of effort CD Projekt Red had put into this free update. "CDPR didn’t really need to spend a fortune or break a sweat on this release, given the game’s self-sustaining popularity," Young wrote. "I really think it’s commendable to see a studio treat an 11-year-old game like a major tentpole launch simply because they know how much their community still cares about it."
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With a new version like this, though, it's just as important to preserve the soul of the game, even if that means not fixing it too much. That's what impressed Polygon's own Francesco Cacciatore, for whom The Witcher 3 is still "an unfinished masterpiece." "The remastered edition brings many improvements, but not enough to change the fundamental nature of the game, and that’s good," Cacciatore wrote. "The Witcher 3’s many faults allow its qualities to shine so much brighter. They’re signs of the very human limitations that make every piece of art unique and ultimately memorable."
Will The Witcher 3 Remastered still sit atop the Metacritic charts come the end of the year? With a rating of 94, it's very possible — although Grand Theft Auto 6 and the aforementioned Zelda: O**carina of Time remake may have something to say about that. We'll find out come November.
