Over a week after its release, Crimson Desert is showing strong momentum that most did not see coming. After an initially rough start, the game has continued to grow in popularity among players in more ways than one, resulting in improved ratings across all platforms.
In particular, the ratings have prominently improved on Steam and Metacritic. In fact, on the latter platform, Crimson Desert is now rivaling Resident Evil Requiem, which many consider the most exciting game of 2026 so far.
In the days that have followed since its release, Crimson Desert’s Metacritic user score has risen to 8.8 (shown as 8.7 on the top-rated page).
This score puts the game above big releases of 2026 like Mewgenics, Nioh 3, and Pokémon Pokopia. When considering just the Metacritic user scores, Crimson Desert is now the 2nd highest-rated game of 2026, second only to Resident Evil Requiem.
Compared to others like Pokémon Pokopia, the Pearl Abyss title also has significantly more user reviews on the platform, making its average numbers all the more impressive. Needless to say, most of the recent Metacritic reviews are extremely positive.
A glance at these reviews shows a common theme of gamers appreciating the open-world experience. Many point out the obvious flaws in storytelling and character writing, but they believe the exploration and gameplay make up for these issues.
Also, it’s worth noting that Crimson Desert now boasts many user reviews in different languages on Metacritic, suggesting it has huge appeal among international audiences.
‘The world and exploration got me addicted, and the more I play, the more I can’t stop playing.” -TRex96
“The story is mediocre, and the initial character is very weak in personality. The side missions are too boring. But everything else in the game is worth it.” -GabrielHLF
The changing reviews are part of a greater perception shift regarding Crimson Desert, and apart from Metacritic, the open-world title shows similar user reviews on Steam, gradually approaching the “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating.
In fact, Pearl Abyss’ latest release even hit a new concurrent Steam peak of over 270K players. Pearl Abyss is also close to the 5 million sales milestone, cementing its latest release as a certified hit for the studio.
