After a big price increase and another confusing restructure of the subscription service's various tiers in late 2025, the price was reduced, but the service also started losing features — so the question is harder than ever to answer. As ever, it's subjective, and depends on how you play games. But there's no denying that Game Pass still has a huge catalog of great games available, and we're here to help you navigate it with our pick of the service's best PC and Xbox games across all the tiers.
After a huge 2025, which saw the addition of the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong, 2026 has been a bit quieter for the service. But there have been some monster back-catalog additions, including CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 and a huge tranche of Ubisoft games, plus a few notable day-one drops, including Forza Horizon 6 and Halo: Campaign Evolved. Our latest update to this list on Oct. 23 added Gears of War: E-Day.
With the sheer size and the bounty of choice it offers, Game Pass can be a bit overwhelming to digest. The Polygon staff plays a lot of video games, and everything in this list comes personally recommended by at least one of us. We determined what should be on our list of the best games on Game Pass by looking at the quality of each title, but also with an eye for breadth and variety — so you should find something on the list you’ll enjoy, no matter what genres of game you like, how much time you have, or what vibe you are after.
Where to play: Game Pass Ultimate on Windows PC and Xbox Series X Xbox returned to the idea of console exclusivity with this barnstorming shooter, which is definitely not coming to PlayStation 5. E-Day rewinds the clock to the moment the Locust invaded, and it's as catastrophically spectacular and full to the brim of meathead blasing action as you could wish a Gears game to be. The shift to free-roaming, semi-open-world sections doesn't really work, but multiplayer is solid as ever and in co-op — the historically correct way to play Gears of War — it absolutely rocks. —Oli Welsh Read Ford James' full review of Gears of War: E-Day.
Playground Games' world-conquering driving games ought to be running out of steam by now, and it's true that the open-world framework and festival vibes of Forza Horizon 6 are deeply familiar and fairly light on innovation. But the thing is, it still works — it really, really works. The new map, based on Japan, is the series' most beautiful and soul-stirring yet (which is really saying something).
And the racing action is endlessly rewarding and engrossing, while being tuned to be a little less overwhelming and scattershot than Forza Horizon 5, with more purposeful progression. Forza Horizon will be dethroned one day, but that day is yet to come. —OW Read Oli Welsh's full review of Forza Horizon 6. Luna Abyss is a short and sweet sci-fi shooter from indie developer Kwalee Labs, which sadly had to close after the game was widely ignored at launch.
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