Microsoft has lowered the bar to gain access to lots of games on Xbox with an Xbox Game Pass—for just $10 a month, users can pick up a whole bunch.
Still, you're looking at $120 a year minimum to get gaming on a system that probably cost you $500.
Even if great games are worth the money, our budgets only stretch so far. You can get games like Forza Horizon 5 or Starfield that will last hundreds of hours, but even then, those may only keep your attention for so long.
That's where free-to-play games come in. Free-to-play once meant a "short Flash game that you can play in a browser." Now, the term really just means a game that you can start playing without spending a cent, and there are some serious bangers.
While free-to-play is far from a quality marker, it's no longer a promise of a subpar title either. There are free-to-play games that can roll with the best of them.
Here are our favorite free games on Xbox Series X and S right now.
(Editor’s note: All of the games on this list are traditional “Web2” games with no crypto elements. However, if you’re looking for a compelling crypto game on Xbox Series X/S, Off the Grid just launched in early access and could be a future contender for this list.)
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0
We offer up a few different ways to fire video game guns at friends and strangers, and each has its own appeal. But there's nothing quite like Call of Duty in terms of tone and feel.
Party up with your friends and live out your Tier 1 Operator fantasies, parachuting into a war-torn city to battle other soldiers of fortune. It's like paintball, except all the paint is red, and you don't leave with a bunch of welts on your back.
Fall Guys
Sometimes, gaming is about winning. Other times, it's about being a smol bean and pushing your friends off of stuff. That's what Fall Guys is for. Fall Guys is, in short, a video game version of shows like "Takeshi's Castle" (aka "MXC").
You inhabit the body of a bean-shaped character and are tasked with completing different events like keeping out of the water, staying on falling platforms, completing obstacle courses, or keeping the other teams from completing an event before your team can.
Every one of the games is silly slapstick action, thanks in part to how goofy the bean-shaped characters look. If you want to spend money on skins for your bean, you can—but it hardly feels necessary.
The Finals
If you're an old kid, then you might remember "American Gladiators," a game show that pits everyday athletes against trained, body-building athletes in a variety of physical events.
The Finals is kind of like that. This online multiplayer FPS is a sort of virtual tournament—hence the name. Teams, usually of three players, drop into the map for an event like Capture the Flag.
Here's the twist: Almost everything in front of you can be destroyed, up to and including full buildings. Grenades, mines, and the largest of the three character types can all destroy walls, meaning that simply being in another room isn't the security blanket you're used to in other shooters.
Fortnite
Fortnite might be a top-tier battle royale shooter, but it's also a constantly evolving game.
As we write this, you can use Iron Man's boots or Leatherface's chainsaw to zip around the map. Before that, we had things like the Omni-Gear from "Attack on Titan" and cyberpunk swords that let you dash around. Weapons filter in and out, and locations evolve. Every once in a while, the map completely changes.
You can play Fortnite alone or with up to four players. You can play it with or without building functionality. There are also countless user-created modes, alongside official things like Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing.
You can try to resist buying skins, but if you're having fun with the game, its hard to say no when Epic Games adds a skin of your favorite character to the game, whether it be Jack Skellington, RoboCop, or Marcus Fenix from Gears of War.
Path of Exile
Sure, Diablo IV is on Xbox Game Pass—but you don't need to pay for the pass to get an authentic action RPG experience. Path of Exile is an isometric, always-online action game in the style of the Diablo series.
While there are ways to spend money, you can finish the campaign without cracking open your wallet. The game also has a monstrous skill tree that will give you practically infinite options if you like tinkering with your character.
The Sims 4
If you don't want to shoot guns or swing swords, though, The Sims 4 might be your best bet.
As of 2022, The Sims 4 is a free-to-play game available on various consoles and platforms. This base download still offers everything it did at launch. If it hooks you, though, publisher EA has piles and piles of expansions and object packs to let you live out your perfect digital life.
Warframe
If you like deep, detailed game lore but don't want to spend money, then Warframe is your jam.
This third-person action RPG puts you into a Warframe, which is basically a biomechanical ninja suit. You can dash and jump around to explore, focus on customizing your character, and engage in player-vs-player combat.
Since its release, the game has received massive support from its developer, with updates that have added piles and piles of lore to consume and explore.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair