2026 has already been a blockbuster year for video games, and it just keeps getting better. Following the recent success of titles such as Resident Evil Requiem and Forza Horizon 6, the new game of the year contender is surprisingly Mina The Hollower!

Yes, according to Metacritic at the time of publishing this story, Yacht Club’s new Zelda-style adventure is currently at the top of the site’s “best games” of 2026. The PC version in particular has an overall critic score of 92/100 (it was 93), placing it ahead of Forza Horizon 6 (on 91/100) and Pokémon Pokopia & Resident Evil Requiem (tied on 89/100).

It’s worth noting Mina the Hollower also currently has a score of 93/100 on the other review aggregate website OpenCritic.

“What a way to wake up! We’re ecstatic to see such an enthusiastic response to Mina the Hollower!”

While positive reception from critics doesn’t always translate to more sales, it can certainly help, and Yacht Club founder Sean Velasco has previously mentioned this release is “make-or-break” for the Shovel Knight studio.

In an interview with Bloomberg late last year, Velasco suggested 500,000 copies sold would be a “golden” outcome, and even 200,000 would be “really, really great”. However, 100,00 might not be “so good”. And in another chat with Bloomberg this week, he’s now got the ambitious goal of hitting a million copies: “If we don’t sell a million copies, I’m going to be disappointed”.

Fortunately, based on early Steam data, the numbers for this platform alone suggest the game has already shifted around 55,000 copies globally. And the team is still waiting for sale data to come through for the console versions. This is also reportedly a significant leap compared to Shovel Knight, which took around a week to shift 75,000 copies across Steam, Wii U and 3DS.

And now that Mina the Hollower is available, the plan is to apparently spend some time marketing, fixing bugs and patching the new game. We’ll keep an eye on how the game sales are tracking, but so far, Mina appears to be off to a respectable start.