
At some point over the past few months, Xbox has changed how it orders the "Game Demos" section on the Microsoft Store — instead of being sorted by new additions, it's now prioritising the most popular demos at any one time.
That's all well and good, and it means a lot of the AAA titles rise to the top, but it's not so great for discoverability. The "new" titles generally fall to the bottom of the list when they first arrive, and then start to rise over time.
So, with multiple major demos having already been released in 2026, we thought we'd bring your attention to them! The likes of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Tides, Code Vein 2 and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined have all received free demos in the past few weeks ahead of their upcoming releases over the next month.
- DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined Demo (added on January 7th)
- Hacked: The Streamer Demo (added on January 13th)
- Star Trek: Voyager - Across The Unknown Demo (added on January 13th)
- Bubblegum Galaxy Demo (added on January 21st)
- Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Demo (added on January 22nd)
- Code Vein 2 - Character Creator Demo (added on January 23rd)
It's also worth noting that some of these demos let you carry your progress to the full game, and others don't — Dragon Quest VII Reimagined's demo contains this feature, for example, whereas Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties doesn't.
We'll keep bringing more free Xbox demos to your attention over time, but if you want to constantly track them on the Microsoft Store, our advice is to work backwards — anything that's brand-new will often be at the back of the list. The latest demos usually all come with a "New" tag on the store as well, so you can at least identify them that way.