The best free games on Xbox
To create this list, we drew from our knowledge and experience of free-to-play Xbox games and used site ratings from TrueAchievements’ members to get a good overall spread of F2P titles. Naturally, some of the best Xbox games happen to crossover here, which is great, considering you won’t need to spend a penny to play them!
15. Roblox
- Release date: June 29, 2016
- Developer: Roblox
When is a game not a game? When it’s all games! Roblox is a creative platform that lets users make and share their own family-friendly gameplay experiences with the world, and while the tools used to build these worlds might not be available on console, the end products are. This means that Xbox players of all ages (this one is a real hit with younger gamers) have access to vast quantities of user-created experiences, as well as the ability to mess around with friends regardless of system, thanks to cross-platform play support. There’s always something new to see or do in Roblox and while its knock-off Lego aesthetic might not be to everyone’s tastes, a lot of games find creative ways to get around it and some are just so much daft fun that you just sort of stop noticing anyway.
Half of the Roblox achievements can be rattled through in minutes, but the rest will take some work (specifically the login streaks and friend party ones), although perhaps you could kill two birds with one stone and keep the kids busy for a bit every day while they earn you some Gamerscore. The nature of Roblox makes it perfect for players with short attention spans since you can just jump between games as you see fit, for free, and with friends if you like. Personalizing your avatar is a nice touch given the community aspect of the game, but maybe don’t let the younglings near the store unsupervised if you don’t want to wind up explaining to a bailiff what Robux are and why you didn’t want to spend $20,000 on them in the first place.
14. Dauntless
- Release date: May 21, 2019
- Developer: Phoenix Labs
Monster Hunter famously isn’t the easiest of series for newcomers to get into. While Monster Hunter World made great strides in that regard, it’s still a daunting prospect for someone coming in fresh. Dauntless’ name checks out here, then, because this F2P MonHun-alike is a lot less to process and a lot more free than Capcom’s title. The setup is the same: grab your weapon of choice from a selection of gear with unique move sets and team synergies, pick your quarry, load in either alone or with some other hunters, fell big beasties, and use their parts to improve your kit and ride this ever-climbing gameplay spiral all the way to endgame.
Despite being similar in structure, though, Dauntless does a few things differently. Its weapons offer surprisingly little overlap with Monster Hunter’s vast arsenal of 14 different implements, and its creatures present some unique challenges that even veterans with two decades of hunting experience won’t have encountered before. Also, the general pace of the game feels much quicker, with greater mobility and shorter hunts, making for an experience that works better as a little-and-often game. Either as a companion game to play alongside Monster Hunter or as an alternative if for some reason you don’t want to give Capcom money for one of the best games of its generation, Dauntless comes highly recommended. It’s no MonHun, sure, but it’s a pretty beastly game in its own right, even if the short Dauntless achievement list is a bit of a slog. Still well worth a crack, though.
13. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis
- Release date: August 5, 2019
- Developer: Sega
Phantasy Star Online 2 originally launched in Japan in 2012 and was unavailable anywhere else for close to a decade. Then, out of the blue, Sega’s online RPG landed on Xbox One in 2020 with a worldwide release years in the making, later getting a soft reboot as New Genesis. Like its beloved Dreamcast predecessors, it’s a sci-fi action-RPG with a strong focus on multiplayer. Enemies, locations, and some classes will be familiar to fans of the online classics, but everything is much bigger and more connected, as you’d expect from a modern iteration.
As well as the usual story missions, dungeons, and bosses, there are a host of large-scale event quests that happen every few hours — raid bosses, special missions, and unique adventures all lean more into large-scale multiplayer and offer great rewards for those who heed the call to arms and come out on top. A few extremely useful items are cheekily hidden behind a paywall but other than that, free players can enjoy the full experience, if at a slightly slower pace than paid users. New Phantasy Star Online 2 achievements used to be added with each update, but none have been added since the New Genesis update, so it looks like it might be capped out at 1,500G.
12. Gems of War
- Release date: November 11, 2015
- Developer: Infinity Plus 2, Pipeworks Studio
If you’re looking for a free-to-play game where you can lose not just hours but entire years to the grind, look no further than Gems of War. This hybrid puzzle-RPG is the successor to the Puzzle Quest crown, and if you recall how difficult those great games were to put down, you can probably see why people are still going back to Gems of War almost a decade after it first released. The game is just massive, and just when you think you’re starting to make a dent in it, it layers on new systems and mechanics that give you even more to do (and to worry about) — assembling and evolving your perfect battle team is an almost never-ending pursuit, especially with additional events and distractions popping up frequently to drag your attention all around this expansive puzzle game.
We need to talk about the Gems of War achievements, though, because after 30+ title updates, the list now has over 100 achievements — some of which are absurdly grindy — and it’s getting to the point where it’s not even realistic to try and put an accurate time estimate on the completion beyond it taking thousands of hours. If you can commit to the grind (or not worry about the achievements) then Gems of War is great, but that list will absolutely look daunting to new players, especially those here on TrueAchievements who can see the game’s astronomically high TA ratio…
11. Warframe
- Release date: September 2, 2014
- Developer: Digital Extremes
Very few games have evolved quite so impressively as Digital Extremes’ Warframe, a third-person loot grind in the same vein as Destiny. Despite having an 18-month head start on Bungie’s game, it never quite found the same degree of success, although it has picked up a lot more fans in the seven years since as the game grew to become something almost unrecognisable compared to its launch form. If you played it back in the day when it was all drab corridors and linear missions, you should try it again to see for yourself how far the game has come. Warframe today has open world areas to explore, tons more weapon and gear options, and more content than you’ll know what to do with, and it’s just so much better for all the passion the team has poured into the game over the years.
The main downside of coming into a game like this so late in the day is that you’re going to find yourself literally years behind a lot of other players. No, really — if you want the gear options most serious players have got, you’re looking at investing thousands of hours. Or a fair chunk of cash, if you’re willing to part with it, as there’s no shortage of frames and weapons in the Market that would help you catch up at least a little. Otherwise, the grind is going to be really quite real, although all the improvements from recent years have ensured that you’ll have a much better time earning your fancy Tenno variants than the early adopters did getting theirs. If only that sense of smug self-satisfaction was legal tender. Oh well…
10. Smite
- Release date: August 19, 2015
- Developer: Hi-Rex Studios
MOBAs (or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, in case you’re allergic to acronyms) were long tipped as the next big thing. While that’s certainly been the case on PC, where League of Legends continues to be one of the most-played games to this day, the genre never really got off the ground on console. Not for want of trying, mind — a few studios had a pop at traditional style overhead MOBAs with mixed results and games like Overwatch and Battleborn clearly took inspiration from the genre, while it was more action-based twists on the formula like Paladins and Smite that proved to be the best compromise for console players.
Despite the third-person perspective, Smite is actually about as close to a traditional top-down MOBA as they come, and anyone who has played League (which seems to be most people on the planet, according to Riot’s numbers) will load in already knowing the vast majority of the systems, progression, and needlessly convoluted terminology. As the name suggests, it’s based around a battle of the gods, with stars from most of the major historical and mythological pantheons to pick from as you throw down in five-on-five battles to destroy the other team’s divine MacGuffin.
There are now more than 300 Smite achievements worth well over 4,000 Gamerscore, but don’t expect that to be in any way easy to get your hands on. It’d take years of mastering every single deity to tick off the lot, and you’d probably die of sodium poisoning (or just general toxicity) before you managed to pop them all. We’re praying for you already.
9. Overwatch 2
- Release date: October 4, 2022
- Developer: Blizzard
It says a lot that despite many launch issues and concerns about its new free-to-play model, Overwatch 2 still manages to make it onto this list. The moment-to-moment action in Overwatch 2’s objective-based modes can be absolutely thrilling (especially with good team synergy and coordination) and while the shift to 5v5 and character reworks have completely changed the meta and aren’t to everyone’s tastes, it’s worth trying for yourself to see how you get on, especially since it’s free. Newcomers that didn’t play the original might have a bit of work to do unlocking the roster to fully open up all their strategic team-building options, but new heroes become available quickly enough early on that you’ll soon get a feel for each role with a few options from which to choose in each — Damage, Support, and Tank.
Having effectively replaced the original Overwatch, the Overwatch 2 achievements pick up and build upon the first game’s list. As such, it’s a big and brutal set of achievements, with a whopping 160 at the time of writing and worth 2,515G, with more to come as new heroes join the fight each season. A lot of achievements are tied to particular feats of skill with each character, while others come and go with each seasonal event that rolls around, so you’ll need to be a pretty regular (and skilled) player if you intend to go for the completion. So long as you know what you’re getting into — or if you don’t care about the completion — Overwatch 2 is a blast.
8. The Finals
- Release date: December 7, 2023
- Developer: Embark Studios
For those looking for an intense, hectic, team-based first-person shooter where buildings can collapse at a moment’s notice, you’ll want to check out The Finals. The FPS pits three teams (sometimes four teams) of three players against each other in various game modes that revolve around collecting money from various vaults and caches on the map. While the premise is somewhat unique, the big selling point here is the environmental destruction. Doors, walls, floors, bridges, and entire buildings can all be leveled and used to your advantage. This creates some pretty emergent gameplay scenarios where things are constantly evolving — you’ll need to be on your toes for this one!
The Finals achievements require a fair amount of grinding to complete. You’ll need to win 150 rounds with each of the three character classes and obtain 50,000,000 in cash, which will take a long, long time.
7. Fall Guys
- Release date: June 21, 2022
- Developer: Mediatonic
For a good while, we wondered whether or not Fall Guys was ever coming to Xbox. Then one day, Mediatonic announced that the hit online party game would be going free-to-play across all platforms… and that included the bean-tastic game show finally getting an Xbox release. It’s seen huge success in this new F2P form, getting a massive surge in player counts and opening the doors to anyone who wants to jump into the colourful nonsense of this new kind of battle royale game — one where the aim is to be the last bean standing out of the 60 who start each show at the end of a string of increasingly taxing mini-games and obstacle courses. The quick-fire nature of the rounds makes this a lot of fun, and when you get knocked out, you can choose to either hang around and watch the bedlam, or hop right back in the queue to have another go at getting yourself a crown.
Some of the Fall Guys achievements can look quite nasty on paper, but with the game running special events every few weeks, there are often new modes in rotation that can make some of the most difficult achievements a lot easier to unlock. The chaos of Fall Guys is like nothing else, so become the bean and give it a try for yourself to see why the world fell in love with this quirky party game. As of the may update, you’re even able to create your own stages to play with friends!
6. Path of Exile
- Release date: August 24, 2017
- Developer: Grinding Gear Games
Path of Exile is one of the best online action-RPGs out there, let alone one of the best free Xbox games. With years of free content and expansions, it offers probably the best value for money of the free games on this list. Set in a dark fantasy world, you have been exiled in the content of Wraeclast and soon set out on a journey to take revenge on those who wronged you. With seven different classes to pick from, and possibly one of the biggest skill trees in a game, Path of Exile is one of the few games where you can actually build a character with depth that will suit your playstyle. That being said, Path of Exile can be pretty obtuse, and you will need to stick with it for a fair while before things eventually click. Thankfully, there is a big online community here, and more often than not, they’re willing to help out new players.
As for the Path of Exile achievements, the completion is a long one. Expect to spend between 300 and 500 hours for the 1,000G.
5. Fortnite
- Release date: July 25, 2017
- Developer: Epic Games
Do we really need to do this? There are undiscovered species of marine life miles beneath the ocean that know what Fortnite is. Urgh, fine. Epic’s battle royale sensation (which has no achievements, for what it’s worth… all the Fortnite achievements are tied to the co-op Save the World mode) hasn’t once dropped out of our Xbox Gameplay Chart in the years since we started the weekly feature — in fact, it has barely even budged from the top three. Fortnite has been tussling with another battle royale game (the one just below, as it happens) since that launched, and has changed a bunch since it first dropped in. We’re now well into Chapter Four of Fortnite, which brought with it another new map, lots of new gear, modes and features, and more cosmetics than you could ever know what to do with.
That side of things has been getting more and more exciting as the seasons have flown by, and it seems no franchise, brand, or celebrity is safe from getting the Fortnite treatment. Marvel’s mightiest heroes; anime legends from series such as Dragon Ball and Naruto; WWE superstars; movie icons like Indiana Jones, John Wick, and Darth Vader. Fortnite fancies itself as the ultimate crossover game, and the longer it goes on, the harder that is to argue.
4. Rocket League
- Release date: February 17, 2016
- Developer: Psyonix
Psyonix’s car soccer sensation Rocket League wasn’t always part of the F2P family, but it was an extremely welcome addition. Tears were shed when it was announced that Rocket League would be leaving Game Pass… and then folks were left to try and scoop those tears back up and pour them back into their eyes when it they realized that this was due to the game going completely free-to-play. Years’ worth of updates are now at every player’s fingertips, and those who played the game before it went free get the double benefit of a stack of extra unlockable stuff in the F2P version and something you just can’t put a price on: experience.
Rocket League is the perfect example of a game that falls into the ‘easy to pick up, difficult to master’ category — you’ll feel like a god when you tap in your first aerial goal, only to later watch online competitions and see the pros dribble the length of the pitch effortlessly. In the air. While upside down. But you won’t even feel bad. You’ll just want to play more Rocket League until you get to that level. And even if you never do (spoilers: you won’t), anything you pull off that even comes remotely close will send you bouncing off the walls in delight. Rocket League is pure joy in video game form, and the pop-offs when something crazy goes down are like nothing else.
The base set of Rocket League achievements was dead easy, but all those updates made the list that much trickier, especially for completionists who now have tons more to do across most of the additional game modes. Not that it should ever prove to be a chore, mind, because free-to-play or otherwise, Rocket League is an absolutely amazing game. If you haven’t played it before to confirm that for yourself, now there’s simply no excuse. Get on it.
3. Halo Infinite
- Release date: November 15, 2021
- Developer: 343 Industries
Despite a shaky launch and several even shakier seasons, Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer is finally in a good place and offers hours of fun online with pals. Featuring a good selection of interesting and well-designed maps, varied and exciting game modes, such as Slayer, Fiesta, and Capture the Flag, a decent Battle Pass with plenty of cosmetics, and excellent gameplay that plays out at a slower pace compared to other shooters on this list, Halo Infinite is easily one of the best free Xbox games on the market (even if it did take a while to get there). On top of this, you have the fan-favorite Forge mode, which regularly brings in a wealth of new player-created content and consistent updates from developer 343 to keep things feeling fresh — there’s even a separate Halo Infinite multiplayer achievement list.
2. Call of Duty: Warzone
- Release date: November 16, 2022
- Developer: Infinity Ward, Raven Software
Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the best when it comes to free-to-play battle royale games. The multiplayer shooter brings that excellent Warzone gameplay formula we all know and love and adds new features to expand the depth and complexity of the experience, along with a new map, weapons, and modes. While the loadout and looting changes may be a little more complex and not to everyone’s tastes, new features such as AI combatants, split gas circles, the 2v2 Gulag system, and swimming (revolutionary, indeed) keep the game feeling exciting and fresh. However, the best new additions included with Warzone are the new DMZ mode (a single-life mode where you fight against other players and bots to complete missions and extract the loot you’ve picked up) and proximity chat. Proximity chat not only adds a tactical element to the game, but it also makes for some pretty hilarious encounters with other players.
1. Apex Legends
- Release date: February 4, 2019
- Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Titanfall developer Respawn couldn’t resist having a crack at the battle royale format, and the talented team did not disappoint. Apex Legends was an overnight sensation, attracting over 25 million players in its first week thanks to its fantastic cast of unique characters and Respawn’s trademark silky-smooth, fast-paced combat and movement. Small teams help promote synergy between each Legend’s individual special abilities and make showdowns feel controlled and intense, while the sci-fi setting allows for some incredible places to touch down and throw down, and the user-friendly ‘ping’ system helps teams communicate by highlighting gear and enemies, even when nobody is speaking.
The Apex Legends achievement list is surprisingly straightforward for a battle royale game, so it’s doable even if you only rarely come away with a big W. New Legends get added every so often, and the map itself has changed a few times as well, so you might drop back in after a few weeks or months away and find a completely different experience waiting for you. Gameplay content such as new Legends can be unlocked purely through gameplay if you’re willing to put the hours in, although there’s also the option to drop some cash and get them right away if you just can’t wait to try out a new character.
Anything here that you already play regularly or plan on starting soon? Maybe you’ve got your own F2P suggestions for us? If you’re a Game Pass subscriber, don’t forget to check out some of the best Xbox Game Pass games — they’re all almost free with your subscription!
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
