Most popular Xbox games — Hellblade 2 and Ubisoft’s XDefiant break into top 5

Anything from our list of upcoming Game Pass games usually has a very good chance of doing well in the top 40 of our gameplay chart thanks to the power of the Xbox Game Pass boost, but our latest Xbox gameplay chart shows Hellblade 2 shooting straight into the top five just days after launch.

The top five of our gameplay chart doesn’t usually see too many seismic shifts thanks to the enduring popularity of Fortnite, Minecraft, Call of Duty, GTA 5, and the like, but this week there’s some big changes. Fortnite is still first, but Minecraft has moved up to second, knocking Call of Duty down to third, while just below we see Hellblade 2 making its debut appearance in fourth with Ubisoft’s free-to-play shooter XDefiant just behind in fifth. It’ll be interesting to see how these two fare next week: multiplayer games (especially free-to-play ones) usually have a longer shelf life on our chart, but Hellblade 2, although a shorter single-player game, was also high on our list of most anticipated upcoming Xbox exclusives.

Just below, GTA V has moved back up two spots to eighth while Forza Horizon 5 has hopped up three spots to 12th, perhaps as a result of its latest Horizon Retrowave update. Then we have a spate of games falling down the chart, including Fallout 76 (several Fallout games enjoyed an initial boost in player numbers after the TV show proved to be so good) and recent excellent (but shorter) Game Pass additions like Little Kitty, Big City. Starfield, meanwhile, which had seen a 72% rise in Xbox players after its 60fps update, has now dropped three spots to 23rd. Then we have Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which continues to drop. It too saw a boost after joining Game Pass Ultimate, but has this week fallen to 25th. It’s still excellent, though, and we have plenty of reasons why you should play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!

Magical FPS Immortals of Aveum, which joined the top 40 for the first time in last week’s chart after joining Game Pass Ultimate, has risen another spot to 29th, while a little further down we see this week’s two reappearances with Black Ops II at 38th and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. The announcement of Black Ops 6 likely explains the return of Black Ops 2, while the launch of Hellblade 2 has likely boosted the player numbers for the first game. The sequel is raking in praise, and Sean had a lot of good things to say in his Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II review! Lastly, we have Another Crab’s Treasure, which has almost fallen out of the top 40 after launching into Game Pass last month.

Top 40 Xbox Gameplay Chart for the week ending May 27, 2024

After Hellblade 2, it’ll be interesting to see what else makes a splash in the chart — we’ve got several Game Pass games confirmed for June already, but we likely won’t hear news for major upcoming Xbox games until the long-awaited Xbox Games Showcase next month.