7 best free games to play on Xbox Series X and S

Microsoft has lowered the bar for getting more games on Xbox with Xbox Game Pass—for just $10 a month, users can pick up an entire collection.

You're still looking at at least $120 a year to get a game on a system that probably costs $500.

While great games are worth the money, our budget only stretches so far. You can find games like Forza Horizon 5 or Starfield that last for hundreds of hours, but then they can only hold your attention for so long.

That's where free-to-play games come in. Free-to-play once meant “a short flash game you can play in a browser.” Now, the term literally means a game you can start playing without spending a dime, and there are some serious bangers out there.

Although free-to-play is far from a quality marker, even a subtitle is no promise. There are free-to-play games that you 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 games on this list are traditional “Web2” games with no crypto elements. However, if you're looking for an interesting crypto game on Xbox Series X/S, Off the grid Launched in early access and may be a future contender for this list.)

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0

We offer a few different ways to shoot video game guns at friends and strangers, and each has its own appeal. But in terms of sound and feel, there's nothing quite like the Call of Duty.

Party with your friends and live out your dreams as a level 1 operator, 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 as many wells on your back.

Fall children

Sometimes it's about winning a game. Other times, it's about being a juice bean and pushing your friends away. That's what Fall Guys is for. Fall Guys is basically a video game version of shows. “Takeshi's Castle” (known as “MXC”).

You live in a bean-shaped character and are tasked with things like staying out of water, staying on falling platforms, completing obstacle courses, or preventing other teams from completing an event before your team starts.

Thanks in part to how badass the bean-shaped characters look, every game is a silly slapstick action. If you want to spend money on your bean skin, you can—but it doesn't feel necessary.

The last ones

If you're an old school kid, you may remember “American Gladiators,” which pitted athletes against trained, body-building athletes in a variety of exercises every day.

Such are the endings. This is an online multiplayer FPS fantasy tournament – hence the name. Teams, usually of three players, are thrown onto the map for an event like Raise the Flag.

Here's the twist: almost everything in front of you can be destroyed, even entire buildings. Grenades, explosives, and the biggest of the three character types can all destroy walls, which means simply being in another room isn't the safety blanket you're used to in other shooters.

Fortnite

Fortnite may be a top-notch battle royale shooter, but it's also a game that's constantly evolving.

As we write this, you can use Iron Man Boots or Laser Face 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 dunk around. Weapons will filter in and out, and areas will improve. Every now and then, the map changes completely.

You can play Fortnite alone or with up to four players. You can play with or without construction tasks. Alongside official stuff like Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racer, there are also countless user-created modes.

You can try to resist buying skins, but if you're enjoying the game, it's hard to say no when Epic Games adds skins for your favorite character like Jack Skillington, RoboCop, or Marcus Fenix. Weapons.

Migration path

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 always an online action game, not in the style of the Diablo series.

While there are ways to cash out, you can finish the campaign without breaking the bank. The game has an amazing skill tree that gives you practically endless options if you like to tinker with your character.

The Sims 4

But if you don't want to shoot guns or swing swords, 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 provides everything it did at launch. If you're hooked, though, Publisher EA has expansions and content packs to let you live your perfect digital life.

Warframe

If you like a deep and detailed game story but don't want to spend money, Warframe is your jam.

This third-person action RPG puts you into Warframe, which is basically a biomechanical ninja suit. You can explore, focus on customizing your character, and engage in player-versus-player combat and jump.

Since its release, the game has received massive support from the developer, with updates that have added heaps to usability and navigation, and heaps of art.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair.