Try and guess 2025’s biggest third party game on Xbox Game Pass

Try and guess 2025’s biggest third party game on Xbox Game Pass Adam Starkey Published December 3, 2025 5:56pm Updated December 3, 2025 5:56pm Share this article via whatsappShare this article via xCopy the link to this article.Link is copiedShare this article via facebook Comment now Comments Not as cheap as it once was (Microsoft)

Microsoft has revealed what the biggest third party game on Xbox Game Pass is this year, and the answer might not come as a surprise.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s perception as the best deal in gaming has been damaged this year thanks to price hikes, but it’s still home to many great games.

If you’re subscribed to the highest tier on Xbox or PC, you can access many titles as they come out at launch, with the likes of Halo: Campaign Evolved and Forza Horizon 6 both due to hit the service when they arrive in 2026.

Beyond games published by Xbox themselves, some third party titles are also available on day one, with this year seeing the likes of Blue Prince, The Alters, and Rematch all hitting the service at launch.

However, none of these have take the crown for the biggest third party launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025. That accolade, perhaps unsurprisingly, goes to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

As announced in an Xbox Wire post, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the title of the ‘biggest new third party game launch’ on the service this year, which is based on the number of unique users within its first 30 days.

Annoyingly though, there aren’t any exact numbers or a description of what this specific phrasing encapsulates.

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We’re assuming it doesn’t include any titles from Activision or Bethesda, considering they’re now owned by Microsoft, which does eliminate a lot of competition, such as The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Either way, for an IP which was unheard of prior to this year, it’s still an impressive accolade – especially when titles like Hollow Knight: Silksong, with years of anticipation behind it, also came out in 2025.

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Speaking about the Game Pass record, the game’s creative director, Guillaume Broche, credited the subscription service for allowing the game to reach a broader audience. ‘The turn-based RPG genre has a lot of fans but sometimes it might put people who prefer more real-time action games off, but Game Pass lowered that barrier of entry,’ he said.

‘They could just try it and see how it feels. So a lot of curious players could start the game, explore Lumiere and the early game, and realise there’s a lot to enjoy here, even if they weren’t expecting it at first.’

This looks set to be the first of many accolades for Clair Obscur Expedition 33. The French role-player is nominated for a record 12 nominations at this year’s The Game Awards, including Game Of The Year, which is more than The Last Of Us Part 2 and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild received.

A Game Of The Year favourite (Sandfall Interactive)

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