Baldur's Gate 3 has beaten Zelda Tears of the Kingdom to become the best-reviewed game of 2023

Baldur's Gate 3 has knocked The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom off the top to become 2023's best-reviewed game.

Whilst some may have thought Nintendo had well and truly stolen the crown with the spectacular The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 has crept into pole position on Metacritic, securing an aggregate critic score of 97/100, beating Tears of the Kingdom by a single point.

Naturally, it's not set in stone – Metacritic scores do change from time to time, especially when a game is newly released, and critical scores are still coming in. Consequently, Zelda may still win out as most if not all of its critical scores are likely already in, giving it it's 96/100 rating. Baldur's Gate 3, on the other hand, has just 21 currently on the Metacritic site.

That said, it's a stunning achievement for Larian Studios, not least because Baldur's Gate 3 also reigns supreme when it comes to boasting the highest user-reviewed scores.

For the second weekend in a row, Baldur's Gate 3 is also the second-most played game on Steam of the last 24 hours, boasting more concurrent players this weekend than Dota 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds. Of all the games on Steam, only CS:GO has had more concurrent players in the last 24 hours.

"I played one character for 50 hours on PC. This wasn’t enough to get through the game, and I'm still in the early to mid stages of Act 2, but it’s more than enough to get a sense of the sprawling scale and depth of the game here," our editor-in-chief, Jake, said of the highly-anticipated RPG, for which he awarded it a lofty five out of five stars.

We'd say that Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best RPGs ever, but if you're on the hunt for the next adventure with some companions, we've got a list of the best MMOs too. However, if you prefer to explore huge worlds on your own, make sure you check out our list of the best single-player games. 

Baldur's Gate 3 may be one of the best RPGs of recent decades, but it can be intimidating for newcomers. If you're looking for a helping hand, check out our Baldur's Gate 3 best class guide.