Splatoon Raiders received generally positive reviews, but nothing on the level of the high praise heaped on exceptional games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Surprisingly, that hasn’t stopped it from leapfrogging both of those Nintendo releases in the Metacritic user rankings. Less than a week after launch, mega-fans have catapulted Splatoon Raiders into the top 10 games on the site by average user rating scores.
It’s currently in seventh place with a rating of 9.3 out of 10. That puts it narrowly ahead of The Witcher 3‘s first expansion, Hearts of Stone, and The Last of Us. There is only one meme game in the top 10 and that’s 2008’s Cory in the House for the DS. At number one sits Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, followed by Resident Evil Requiem. As you can see, there’s some recency bias at play there, but on the whole the rankings generally elevate games that many players regard as some of the best ever.
this splatoon shit is so serious raiders has the 7th highest user score of all time on metacritic LOL pic.twitter.com/RJD5AnnnAW
— lil (@lilifying) July 27, 2026
So Splatoon Raiders sneaking in there is a surprising development. “Absolute Cinema,” wrote one Metacritic user. “From gameplay to graphics to audio, just a really nice and incredibly polished experience. They really figured out the perfect gameplay loop!” Another declared, “The future GOTY of 2026!” Breath of the Wild, meanwhile, is ranked 95th in user scores.
Nintendo’s latest Switch 2 exclusive currently has only 464 total User Ratings, meaning that it’s currently the biggest and most diehard fans propping the game up. Its reviewer rating, on the other hand, sits at 8.1. As more user reviews are added, the game’s ranking will likely come down significantly, unless the ranking itself ends up galvanizing other fans to keep propping it up. Splatoon players are already used to taking weekly marching orders from fictional TV show hosts.
But after playing Splatoon Raiders for much of this past weekend, I won’t deny it’s a ton of fun and I can see why its resonating with fans way more than the initial reviews might suggest. It is a fun and breezy loot shooter than can have an interesting amount of depth, and it feels way more like a bullet heaven arcade shooter than I ever would have expected out of Nintendo. That might not make it one of the top 10 best games ever, but I do think it will end up earning itself a reputation for being one of the Switch 2 era’s more unique first-party gems.
Ethan Gach
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