Elden Ring Sits At a Stunning Score of 97 On Metacritic and is One of the Best Reviewed Games Ever

Elden Ring has been one of the gaming community’s most anticipated games for years, and its review scores appear to be living up to the hype. Right now, Elden Ring is one of the highest-scoring games on Metacritic and OpenCritic. The two websites compile scores from various outlets, giving an average score that’s usually a pretty good indicator of the general critical consensus on a game.

Over on Metacritic, the PlayStation 5 version of Elden Ring has a score of 97, tied with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Grand Theft Auto V, Metroid Prime, and more. Only four games have ever scored a 98, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time stands alone at 99. And on OpenCritic, Elden Ring is currently tied with Super Mario Odyssey for the highest rating on the website at a 97.

There are a couple important things to note with Elden Ring’s score. First, the scores are incredibly fresh since Elden Ring’s review embargo only lifted hours ago, and some reviews that are already out aren’t scored yet due to the game’s length. New review scores can keep coming in over time, causing Elden Ring’s average score to change. Also, both Metacritic and OpenCritic don’t encompass many reviews for older games. Metacritic specifically only has a handful of pre-2000 games in its rankings, with all-time greats from consoles like the SNES not being included at all. Still, it’s an impressive achievement for FromSoftware.

Our Elden Ring review largely agrees with the common consensus. We called the game a masterpiece, saying, “Elden Ring is one that we’ll be looking back on as a game that moved a genre forward.”

The hype train for Elden Ring has almost reached the station. If you can’t wait to check out The Lands Between, check out the global release schedule to learn what time you can start playing. Or, if you’re a FromSoftware rookie and are worried about the difficulty, learn about Elden Ring’s detailed tutorial dungeon for new players.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.