Xbox Game Pass Essential: Full List Of Games (December 2025 Update)

That is one insanely mediocre list.
There are some heavy hitters, for sure, but those I just bought at pretty low prices during the Spring Sale...

This is a really good selection considering $60/year for basically a decade prior to Core got you temporary ownership of maybe 1 game per year.

Since Gamepass Family plans never materialized, I do this for my son. We play Grounded, Deep Rock, and Astroneer, and Among Us. From a single player perspective, there are lots of great choices here, though some might complain that they are older games (i.e. 3-8 year old titles).

I'm surprised there aren't more first-party offerings here, namely Sea of Thieves or Rare Replay.

I beat Ori and the Will of the Wisps, thanks to Game Pass Core availability. I also took a second look at Fallout 76, so the service has done me a few favors.

>we've had a few updates since then, with Microsoft adding a few titles to the service every six months or so.

"Every six months"? That's just bad math.

Anyway, really strong catalog that is lightyears better than Games with Gold's last 3 years combined. Plenty of awesome online games there.

@TheLastHarbinger This was more me predicting Xbox's cadence with these updates. Yes, the first update dropped a few months after the GP Core launch, but I was looking more at early December to late April for a rough gap between updates. Not too far off 6 months! 😄

@Millionski Core is required for online play, so there will be a large number of people who will get it just for that and will probably enjoy these "free" games that go along with their ability to play with friends

Kinda surprised they haven't put quieter games that require more multiplayer players on this list like Crash team rumble and redfall.
Still if I only had core, there's still a good amount of entertainment to get out of this collection.

Looks like a decent list for the cheapest plan for my tastes anyways ✌️

I don't see Hades?? I thought that was part of Essential? 🤔

Edit: Apologies, near the bottom 😖 Vampire Survivors is there too and Deep Rock Galactic... YESSS!!

Fair selection for the price tag.
I'm happy.

I wish they had a tier that only included online multiplayer for the people who have thousands of games already and don't need anything to do with Game pass or cloud streaming. Oh wait, they did and they took it away.

@Nic-Noc20th-C Agreed. I'm going on this tier post-price hike.

Xbox Gamepass Essentials blows PS+ essentials subscription out the water lol access to 50+ games, Xbox Play Anywhere for certain games you own and Xbox Cloud Gaming for certain games we own plus cloud gaming for titles within the 50 game catalog all for $9.99/month. The only reason I still subscribe to PS+ is so my wife can play certain games she enjoys with friends & I get to play Helldiver's 2.

Sorry I guess it just dawned on me how much more stuff you get on the lowest Gamepass tier compared to the lowest PlayStation plus tier. Happy gaming ✌️

It’s actually a great list of games if you haven’t kept up with releases over the past 10 years.

Forza Horizon 4? That game isn't even available for purchase in the store anymore.

Just sad. Only a simple minded fool would pay for essential.

So it barely changed much, it has variety, a fair size, but many of these are either cheap physical, had digital discounts many times likely, vary on trying to appeal to many people (unless you have played games constantly so it's a newcomers tier, which is fair to offer 'to a point') which is fine and that kind of works but not by much.

As particular as Games with Gold was, so many Indies got overlooked because they went big games people had heard of, heck I thought the month with Inertial Drift was great and people went eh sucks and I'm like well that makes clear audiences right there.

Even then compared to OG Xbox/360 or those gens regardless of console I'd actually want to play that variety of games, not many of these at all. A few decent games sure but I already know about them or played them or IPs I'd never care for, versus decent stuff I respect I guess or licensing or other factors so where are the not as heavy licenseed to easily get delisted so they stay up more (any fictional vehicles arcade racer) racing games, oh wait......

If your a starter to the generation/service, console, etc. sure, but not much cycles for it clearly, most are paying for multiplayer and many of these only do so much or other games are accessible to play without a service, so why bother?

The game design or variety of PS3/360 and under 1st party, 2nd party, 3rd party is more appealing, so why would I a bunch of certain games that vary and usually Xbox One/Series games I may not care about at all for a low level access that's clearly for newcomers but not much more then that.

@Brigurugi ...or perhaps someone who can't afford the other tiers maybe?
I think that list is pretty decent to be honest, but then it depends what you like to play.

Unless enjoy, 8 bit NES, jumping over lava pit games from the 1980s? Essential is the only way to go. Especially when looking at that $30 month Ultimate.

Ultimate likely going to hit $40-$50 by 2027. Microsoft only shooting self in foot at this point.

@ZYDIO Xbox Live was far superior to anything Xbox offers now.

Plus could buy 12 month Xbox Live card (something ANY level of Game Pass FAILS to offer) for $40.