9.3 Score Helps Splatoon Raiders Crack Metacritic’s Top Seven

According to Gamersky, Nintendo's first-party exclusive Splatoon: Raiders launched last week. At the review-embargo stage, Metacritic listed an 81 critic average; as of now, its User Score sits at 9.3. That 9.3 has already pushed the game to No. 7 on Metacritic's all-time user-score chart, making it the highest-rated Nintendo first-party title among players.

The gap between those two numbers is the story here. An 81 points to a respectable, but not rapturous, critical reception, while a 9.3 puts the game in rare company among Metacritic users.

What makes the split interesting is that critics and players appear to be valuing different things. Critics tend to weigh structure, innovation, and how far a series actually moves forward. Players usually care more about feel, match flow, and whether they want to keep coming back. For a Nintendo first-party exclusive, a 9.3 User Score is a clear sign that the core audience is responding strongly.

Viewed another way, this is not a score driven by pre-release marketing. It is a post-launch user score built from player ratings. The article notes that Splatoon: Raiders is now the best-received Nintendo first-party game by user sentiment, which is no small distinction given how many long-running favorites Nintendo has in its own catalog. If you already play Splatoon, that 9.3 is a strong recommendation, especially if you care about multiplayer, pacing, and an active community. If you rely on critic scores more than player enthusiasm, the 81 is a reminder to weigh your own tastes before jumping in.

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