Big Walk, from the Untitled Goose Game team, is tied for the best-reviewed game of 2026
Big Walk, a co-op adventure from House House, launched August 4 with a 94 on Metacritic, tied for the year’s highest. There’s no combat, just proximity voice chat and puzzles that make you find new ways to talk.
Big Walk, the new co-op game from the studio behind Untitled Goose Game, launched August 4 and immediately shot to the top of the year’s review charts.
It holds a 94 on Metacritic, tied with the twin-stick shooter Sektori for the highest-rated game of 2026 so far. It also became Steam’s number-one top seller on launch, and it’s out on PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2 for $20.
Polygon called it a genuine Game of the Year contender. Eurogamer gave it five stars. GameSpot called it one of the best co-op games ever made.
What Big Walk actually is
There are no guns and no combat. The entire game is about talking to your friends.
Made by four-person Melbourne studio House House and published by Panic (Firewatch, the Playdate), Big Walk drops you and your friends into a wide-open island to explore, solve puzzles, and figure things out together. Supported group sizes run from 2 to 12 players, with puzzles that scale to your party.
The whole thing is built around one mechanic: proximity voice chat. You can only hear your friends when they’re near you. Voice fades, echoes, and muffles depending on distance and obstacles.
The clever part: puzzles that take your voice away
The proximity chat isn’t just a vibe. It’s the puzzle design.
Several of Big Walk’s challenges are specifically built to restrict or remove your ability to talk, forcing you and your friends to fall back on pointing, waving, and inventing gestures to communicate. The game keeps taking away the easy way to coordinate and making you find a harder, funnier one.
That’s where the rave reviews come from. Critics describe it less as a puzzle game and more as a hangout, the kind of session that becomes a story people retell afterward, because the best moments are ones nobody scripted. Polygon compared the feeling to summer camp.
Why a $20 walking game is beating the blockbusters
Big Walk topping 2026 is part of a pattern worth noticing.
The two highest-rated games of the year are both small, focused projects: Big Walk and Sektori, each at 94, sitting above expensive releases like Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Mina the Hollower, which landed in the high 80s. House House has now pulled this off twice, in two completely different genres, after Untitled Goose Game became a cultural moment on almost no budget.
It’s not a fluke, and it’s not just these two. It Takes Two and Split Fiction proved co-op can sell; Astro Bot proved pure delight still lands. The through-line is that games built first around how people actually play together, talk, gesture, invent, keep earning the year’s top scores while big studios chase live-service retention.
One fair caveat: it’s not for everyone.
Reviewers note the pacing is patient and it has lulls, and one critic warned that anyone expecting intricate puzzle design or a strong sense of progression may come away disappointed. Big Walk’s whole appeal depends on having friends to walk with.
If you’ve got them, it might be the best twenty dollars in gaming this year.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Game8 (August 4, 2026), verified for the 94 Metacritic score tied with Sektori, the Steam number-one top seller status, the proximity voice chat fading/echoing/muffling mechanic, the puzzles designed to restrict voice, and the December 2023 Game Awards reveal
TechTimes (August 5, 2026), verified for the August 4 launch on PC/PS5/Switch 2, the four-member House House studio and publisher Panic, the PS5 version at 86 versus PC at 94, and the CGMagazine caveat about puzzle design and progression
NeoGAF / Polygon (August 4, 2026), verified for the 2-to-12 player support, the puzzles scaling to group size, the “best co-op games ever” GameSpot line, and the summer-camp framing
NME (August 4, 2026), verified for House House being the Untitled Goose Game creators and the co-op teamwork-and-talking description
Cumbernauld Media (August 2026), verified for the $20 price, the comparison to Forza Horizon 6 and other higher-budget 2026 releases, and the It Takes Two / Split Fiction / Astro Bot co-op context