The place of Xbox in 2026 is really interesting indeed. Microsoft did not win the fight with PlayStation. They changed the terms of the competition entirely. Game Pass took the subscription model of gaming to the next level and ended up catching up with the complaints about the poor first-party library. Streaming has become good enough to really matter.
Whether you're picking up an Xbox Series X for the first time or you've been subscribed since Game Pass launched, there's more depth here than at any point before. Here's what's worth your time.
Top Xbox games to play in 2026
The titles below cover a range of genres and play styles. They share one thing: they're genuinely good. These are games worth finishing. The platform label doesn't matter.
Avowed
The Obsidian fantasy RPG came out in February 2025 and turned out to be one of the most talked-about Xbox RPG titles that year. The game is set in the Living Lands, an obscure corner of the world of Pillars of Eternity, and in Avowed, you can either dive into magic entirely or go for melee, and both are valid options.
What makes it stick is the writing companions' push back on your choices, and the world reacts to what you do. The combat can feel thin in the first few hours before abilities open up, but it's on Game Pass, so trying it costs nothing extra if you're already subscribed.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released by Sandfall Interactive in April 2025. Sandfall had no major publisher behind it, and Game Pass is likely why the game reached the audience it did rather than becoming a cult title discovered years later. The game premise places you in a world where an entity known as the Paintress wipes out one generation annually, and your goal as an expedition is to stop her.
The combat mixes traditional turn-based mechanics with real-time inputs for blocking and dodging. It sounds like it'd be awkward; it isn't. Clair Obscur was the game I kept recommending to people who said they didn't like turn-based combat. The real-time parry system changes the calculus entirely.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
MachineGames brought Indiana Jones back in December 2024, and The Great Circle is one of the stronger Xbox exclusives in recent years. It's a first-person adventure set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and it plays like an actual Indiana Jones adventure, not a licensed reskin of someone else's action game.
Solving environmental puzzles and making use of the whip feel good to do in places that have been constructed very well. The game is played at a more relaxed pace compared to other action games.
Forza Horizon 5
Released in 2021, Forza Horizon 5 is still the best racing game on the platform. Lots of additional content has been piled up through the years, and the game you're playing is significantly bigger than when it was first released.
The open world of Mexico is massive and well-put-together. The handling model rewards time without being inaccessible. Cross-play with PC means there are always people to race against. Five years of seasonal content also means the campaign is now buried under event menus new players may find the onboarding confusing. For players who want circuit racing with more detailed setups, Forza Motorsport is the simulation-focused alternative.
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games' South of Midnight came out in spring 2025. The stop-motion-inspired art style is distinctive enough that screenshots look hand-crafted rather than rendered. No other game in the Xbox library looks remotely like it. You play as Hazel, working through a bayou region full of creatures pulled from American Southern folklore, using thread-based magical abilities to fight and unravel the story behind them.
This is a tightly designed game that does not waste time, though the combat itself is fairly shallow, it's closer to a 12-hour narrative experience than a full action game.
Doom: The Dark Ages
Doom: The Dark Ages landed in May 2025 and took a different approach from Eternal. Movement is more grounded, and enemies hit harder. The shield saw changed close combat in a way that made the game feel genuinely fresh. id Software added dragon riding and mech sequences, which are exactly as ridiculous and enjoyable as they sound.
Performance on Xbox Series X stays locked, and if you have any tolerance for arena shooters, this is currently the most technically impressive game on the platform.
Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite had a complicated post-launch period after its release in 2021. The studio was restructured. Content came slower than players wanted. By 2026, the multiplayer has settled into a more consistent rhythm the current map rotation and ranked playlists finally feel like they fit the game's identity, even if it took years longer than it should have to get there.
It's free-to-play, which keeps the player pool accessible. The gunplay is still distinctly Halo, and it's one of the few major Xbox multiplayer games that doesn't require a Game Pass subscription to access.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Black Ops 6 was the first mainline Call of Duty to arrive on Game Pass from day one, launching in late 2024. The omnimovement system changed how the game feels at a basic level, diving, sliding into ADS, and strafing while prone all open up encounters that older CoD games didn't allow. The campaign was more interesting than CoD campaigns tend to be, though Warzone integration has gotten complicated enough that newcomers may want to stick to core multiplayer at first.
Warzone has continued to evolve alongside it with seasonal updates. In our experience, it's one of the most active Xbox multiplayer games right now, and seasonal content keeps it rotating through 2026. (Or, if you can source it: "It topped Xbox's most-played charts as of [month/year], per [Xbox Wire/Circana link], and seasonal content keeps it rotating.")
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is for a specific kind of player, and that player tends to love it. The 2024 edition added a career mode with licensed pilot certifications and aerial work contracts alongside the existing sandbox.
Flight Simulator 2024 remains the one game I struggle to explain to people who don't play it. The best I can offer is that landing a Cessna at a real airport after a real-route flight creates a specific satisfaction that nothing else on the platform replicates. The career mode does have a steep learning curve, and some certifications require genuine study, so this isn't a casual pick-up game.
Trends shaping Xbox gaming in 2026
In our experience, Game Pass has moved past being a selling point and into something more like a default assumption for most Xbox owners. Most Xbox first-party releases have shipped on the service day one for a few years now, and the habit of buying individual full-price titles has mostly given way to subscription browsing. You play more things and commit to fewer, picking up games you'd never have spent full price on.
In our testing, Xbox Cloud Gaming has reached a level of reliability that makes it genuinely useful on a stable connection for most genres, and it's how some players access the library without owning dedicated hardware. For console subscribers, it extends sessions to a phone or tablet without losing progress.
Cross-play has become standard on most major multiplayer titles in the ecosystem, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and Black Ops 6 among them. Platform choice doesn't affect who you can play with in the way it used to, which has changed how people actually decide where to spend their time.
Live service games are being held to a higher standard. In our view, the titles drawing crowds in 2026, Black Ops 6's Warzone integration among them, are doing it through regular seasonal content rather than battle pass urgency tactics.
What to play next
The Xbox library right now is defined by its range. This includes RPGs, racing, FPS, simulations, and action-adventure titles that are actually worth completing, not something you download once and forget about. Game Pass changes how you think about a library like this; you'll try things you'd never have spent $70 on, and occasionally find something you play for 80 hours.
If you're new to Game Pass, start with Clair Obscur. It's 30-40 hours and designed to be completed. If you want a long RPG, Avowed. If you want a technical showcase, Doom: The Dark Ages on Series X. If you've got fifteen minutes on a commute, Black Ops 6 multiplayer through Cloud Gaming is built for exactly that.
Kataryna Dyl
Disclaimer: All materials on this site are for informational purposes only. None of the material should be interpreted as investment advice. Please note that, despite the nature of much of the material created and hosted on this website, HODL FM operates as a media and informational platform, not a provider of financial advisory services. The opinions of authors and other contributors are their own and should not be taken as financial advice. If you require advice, HODL FM strongly recommends contacting a qualified industry professional.
