Xbox Game Pass is one helluva deal. For between $10.99 and $16.99 each month, you get access to a large vault of games from a variety of genres. Each month sees a handful of titles leave the subscription service, but Microsoft always seems to ensure there are more than 400 games on offer. That does mean that you never own these games, which is a bummer in our increasingly digital world. However, you can’t really beat the ability to sample this many games all in one place.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the variety of games and genres on offer. To help you wade through the crowd, below are our picks for some of the best Xbox Game Pass games you should download first.
These are, entirely unscientifically, some of the best games currently on Xbox Game Pass. Some ground rules: We’ve avoided the most brazenly obvious—your Forzas, your Halos, and so on—seeing as if you have an Xbox, you’re probably well aware those games exist and are worth playing. Also, this is a console-only list for now. Members of Xbox Game Pass for PC get access to a similar list that includes most of these games but has some that aren’t available on console.
