Less than a week after launch, Splatoon Raiders has climbed into rarefied company on Metacritic. The Switch 2 spin-off now carries a 9.3 average user score, enough to place it seventh on the site’s all-time list and higher than any other Nintendo-published game ever tracked there.
Quick answer: Splatoon Raiders holds a 9.3 user score on Metacritic, currently the seventh-highest of all time and the top mark for any Nintendo game, ahead of both Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Where Splatoon Raiders sits on the all-time user list
At number seven, Splatoon Raiders lands just above The Witcher 3’s Hearts of Stone expansion and The Last of Us. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 holds the top position, followed by Resident Evil Requiem. Ahead of Raiders you also find The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and Silent Hill 4, plus one long-running meme entry that refuses to leave the top ten: 2008’s Disney’s Cory in the House for the DS.
| Position relative to Raiders | Title |
|---|---|
| Above | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (No. 1) |
| Above | Resident Evil Requiem (No. 2) |
| Above | The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine |
| Above | Silent Hill 4 |
| Above | Disney’s Cory in the House |
| Splatoon Raiders | 9.3 user score (No. 7) |
| Below | The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone |
| Below | The Last of Us |
| Below | The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask |
The list generally rewards games that many players consider among the best ever made, so a week-old spin-off breaking in is a genuine surprise. The company it keeps at the top does skew toward recent releases, which shows how quickly a passionate fanbase can move the needle.
The highest Nintendo user score ever recorded
Metacritic’s catalog stretches back to the N64 era, and in all that time no Nintendo-published title has posted a higher user score than Raiders. The previous holder was The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask at 9.2, with a cluster of classics sitting a notch below it.
| Nintendo game | User score |
|---|---|
| Splatoon Raiders | 9.3 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask | 9.2 |
| Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver | 9.1 |
| Xenoblade Chronicles | 9.1 |
| Ocarina of Time (and its 3DS remaster) | 9.1 |
For scale, Breath of the Wild ranks around 95th in user scores despite its reputation, and Super Mario Odyssey sits behind Raiders too. That gap is the whole story: dedicated Splatoon players have propelled a spin-off past franchises that usually define Nintendo’s critical peaks.
Critic score vs user score
The gap between reviewers and players is wide here. On the critic side, Splatoon Raiders settled at a Metascore of 81, which Metacritic files under “Generally Favorable” and lines up with the rest of the series. OpenCritic tells a similar story, with a Top Critic Average of 83 and 87% of critics recommending it.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Metacritic Metascore | 81 (Generally Favorable) |
| Metacritic user score | 9.3 (Universal Acclaim) |
| OpenCritic Top Critic Average | 83 |
| OpenCritic Critics Recommend | 87% |
Individual reviews ranged from full marks to sharp criticism. IGN and Nintendo Life both handed out a 9/10, praising the customization and gameplay loop, while The Guardian went as low as 40/100, calling the game pedestrian. That spread is why the user score standing out so far above the critic average is notable.
Why the ranking could still move
The 9.3 rests on a relatively small pool of votes. The user total climbed from a few hundred early on to roughly 691 ratings, with 94% of them positive. A sample that size is heavily shaped by the most committed fans, so the average can slide as more casual players weigh in.
Not every player agrees with the acclaim. Some longtime Splatoon fans have posted 7s, arguing the game is fun but closer to average, and a handful of 4s complain that the loop grows repetitive or forces a specific playstyle. As those reviews accumulate, the ranking is likely to come down unless the fanbase keeps actively propping it up.
Note: the current placement is a live figure, not a fixed record. If you check the game’s Metacritic page and the user score reads lower than 9.3, that reflects newer ratings shifting the average rather than an error.
What Splatoon Raiders actually is
Raiders arrived July 23, 2026 as a Switch 2 exclusive developed by Nintendo EPD. It trades the series’ competitive Turf War for a single-player campaign that also supports online co-op, casting you as the “Mechanic” exploring the Spirhalite Islands alongside Deep Cut. In practice it plays like a looter shooter built on the bones of Salmon Run, with a fast raid loop, deep build crafting, and gadget loadouts to chase.
The game runs at 60 fps and launched at $59.99. You can pick it up on Nintendo’s official store if you want to see what the fuss is about.
Whether the 9.3 holds or settles closer to the critic average, the takeaway stands: Nintendo’s experiment with a story-driven, single-player Splatoon has landed hard with the people who bought it, and for now that puts a week-old spin-off in the same breath as some of the most beloved games on the platform.
