Splatoon Raiders Rockets Into Metacritic's Top 10 User-Rated Games Less Than a Week After Launch

Splatoon Raiders launched to solid but unremarkable critic scores — an 8.1 on Metacritic — yet its most devoted fans have pushed it into seventh place on the site's all-time user ratings chart, with a 9.3 out of 10 based on 464 total user scores. That puts it ahead of The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone and The Last of Us, and above Nintendo's own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which sits way down at 95th.

The top of the chart is dominated by recent releases: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 holds the number one spot, followed by Resident Evil Requiem. The only legacy meme entry in the top 10 is the 2008 DS game Cory in the House. User comments on Splatoon Raiders range from "Absolute Cinema" to predictions of a 2026 GOTY win, with reviewers praising its polished gameplay loop, visuals, and audio.

The caveat is obvious: 464 ratings is a tiny sample, and early Metacritic user scores almost always skew high when only the most passionate fans have bothered to vote. As the broader player base weighs in, the ranking will almost certainly drop. That said, the Splatoon community has a history of organized enthusiasm — weekly in-game Splatfests literally hand players coordinated team allegiances — so a sustained push isn't out of the question.

The game itself, a loot shooter with bullet-heaven mechanics that feels more like Vampire Survivors than a traditional Nintendo release, has apparently connected with players more deeply than its critic scores suggest. Whether the Metacritic ranking holds or collapses, Splatoon Raiders looks set to carve out a reputation as one of the Switch 2's more distinctive first-party titles.