Big Walk currently holds the highest Metacritic score of any game released in 2026, tied with Sektori. The co-op walker-talker
from Untitled Goose Game developer House House has also become Steam's #1 top seller since its August 4 launch.
Big Walk Is 2026's Highest-Rated Game So Far, According to Metacritic
A 94 Metacritic Score Ties It With Sektori for the Year's Best
Big Walk, a co-op game, is Metacritic’s highest scoring game of 2026. Currently, Big Walk holds a Metacritic score of 94, the highest any game has achieved this year (sharing the position with twin-stick shooter title Sektori), with Polygon calling it a genuine Game of the Year contender and Eurogamer awarding it five stars, while GameSpot went as far as naming it one of the best co-op games ever made.
Player reception has largely echoed that sentiment: As of August 5, Big Walk now holds 1,898 user reviews on Steam, with 1,654 positive (87.1%) and 244 negative (12.9%), giving it a SteamDB Rating of 83.32% and a Very Positive
overall tag. On the PlayStation Store, reception is even stronger, with a 4.55 out of 5 average from 1,696 ratings, 84% of which are five stars.
Much of that praise centers on the same thing: how well the game turns communication itself into the core challenge. Reviewers have pointed to its proximity-based voice chat and its puzzles built to test trust and teamwork over reflexes, with PCMag describing the experience as feeling like a digital "third space" for friends to simply exist together in. That focus on genuine social connection, rather than combat or competition, is the main reason critics and players alike keep singling the game out.
Not every response has been glowing, though. The most common point of pushback across both storefronts centers on the game's voice-restricted puzzles specifically. Since several challenges are built around limiting or cutting off normal communication between players, some users have pointed out that groups already coordinating over Discord can simply keep talking outside the game, effectively bypassing the challenge the puzzle was designed around. A review from GamersHeroes echoed a similar concern, warning that Big Walk's backtracking and voice chat restrictions could burn some players out despite the game's otherwise strong puzzle design.
A 46,409-Player Peak and Steam's #1 Top Seller Spot
The game also hit a massive all-time-peak just half a day after its release. Per SteamDB, Big Walk reached an all-time concurrent player peak of 46,409 on August 5, one day after launch, and currently sits at #1 on Steam's Global Top Sellers chart. It also ranks #98 in daily active users and #6 in wishlist activity sitewide, a strong overall showing for a co-op-only game with no traditional single-player mode.
This doesn’t account for all players as the game is also part of PlayStation Plus's Monthly Games lineup for August 2026, claimable free by PS Plus members between August 4 and August 31, a launch-day inclusion that's likely another factor behind its current trending status.
Big Walk Is a Co-op Game Built Around Communication
Big Walk is a cooperative exploration and puzzle game built entirely around communication. Sessions support between 2 and 12 players, with no traditional single-player mode and no public matchmaking, one player hosts a session, and friends join through a platform friends list or a join code. Voice chat is proximity-based, fading, echoing, and muffling depending on distance and obstacles, and several puzzles are specifically designed to restrict or remove voice communication, forcing players to fall back on pointing, waving, and other gestures instead.
Developed by the same people behind the Untitled Goose Game, the game first appeared at The Game Awards in December 2023, with a gameplay-focused trailer following in June 2025 at Steam's Day of the Devs showcase. Early impressions from that showcase were largely positive, with Eurogamer's Matt Wales calling the concept "wonderfully distinctive."
Big Walk, developed by House House and published by Panic, released August 4 on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2 with full crossplay between all three, letting friends on different platforms join the same session together. An Xbox version has yet to be announced.
Sources:
Big Walk - Official Steam Page
