It’s only been a few days since launch, but Mina the Hollower has already made history. Yacht Club Games’ gothic action-adventure has climbed to the very top of Metacritic’s 2026 rankings, becoming the highest-rated game of the year – ahead of some of the biggest blockbuster releases the industry has put out.

The game also holds a score of 92 on OpenCritic. To put that in perspective, 2026 has been a genuinely stacked year. Mina now sits ahead of Forza Horizon 6, and both Pokémon Pokopia and Resident Evil Requiem – franchises with enormous marketing budgets and decades of brand recognition behind them. That an indie studio has outscored all of them is, frankly, remarkable.

The timing couldn’t be more important for Yacht Club. Studio founder Sean Velasco said “It’s make-or-break for sure,” and has set a personal sales target of one million copies across all platforms. Strong reviews don’t always translate directly to sales, but they’re as powerful a tailwind as a small studio can hope for.

Early signs on the sales front are encouraging too. Steam estimates suggest around 55,000 copies have been sold on PC alone in the opening days – a figure that already compares favorably to Shovel Knight, which took a full week to move 75,000 copies across PC, Wii U, and 3DS combined. Console sales data is still to come, meaning the full picture will likely look even better.

Yacht Club’s focus has shifted to polishing, bug fixes, and patches. But for the moment, the studio that needed a hit has a genuine game of the year contender on its hands – and the numbers to match.