Every September 2025 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate game, ranked

Every month, several new games are added to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalog. A mix of old hidden gems and brand new game releases, every month’s lineup of Game Pass additions feels a little bit different.

In September 2025’s case, the new addition that really stands out is Hollow Knight: Silksong. That said, eight games in total are already confirmed to come to Game Pass Ultimate across PC and Xbox Series X.

Five of these were revealed as part of the Wave 1 announcement on Xbox Wire, while three others have been separately confirmed for the service.

You might have a tough time deciding which of these eight new games you should play first. Or, at least, which one to play first after Hollow Knight: Silksong.

To help you pick what to play, I’m sharing my personal ranking of all the games confirmed to be coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s catalog in September so far.

8

Paw Patrol World

Coming to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Cloud Gaming on September 10

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Paw Patrol World is the lowest-ranked game on this list.

It’s a kids’ game based on a popular TV series, and a very rudimentary 3D platformer where you can control the animals from the show.

The game has an open world, which is somewhat impressive for this kind of low-budget kids’ game, but there’s really no reason for you to play this game unless you’re looking for a game to play with your kids.

Even then, I’d recommend games like Minecraft and New Super Lucky’s Tale over this.

7

RoadCraft

Coming to Xbox Series X and Xbox Cloud Gaming on September 16

RoadCraft is a vehicle simulation game all about rebuilding roads damaged by natural disasters. If that extremely specific premise sounds intriguing to you, then you’d probably like the game.

It’s somewhat hard to recommend to players who aren’t already familiar with this niche of simulation games, but it may particularly appeal to certain Game Pass subscribers.

Saber Interactive’s simulation games tend to have very realistic physics for their vehicles, and players will complete tasks that are some people’s jobs in the real world.

RoadCraft is simply the latest example of that, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There aren’t many other simulation games quite like RoadCraft out there.

6

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

Coming to PC and Xbox Series X on September 17

Vampire Survivors has spawned plenty of imitators, but not as many are attached to a prominent gaming franchise.

That can’t be said for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, which reinterprets the popular mining and survival sci-fi game as a bulletheaven auto-shooter like Vampire Survivors.

It’s already been in early access on Steam for over a year and has been positively received. Now, it’s getting its 1.0 update and coming to consoles, and it’s being put into the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate catalog to celebrate.

If Vampire Survivors is your most-played Game Pass title, you’ll want to check this one out.

5

I Am Your Beast

Available on PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Cloud Gaming now

Strange Scaffold is a studio that makes a lot of good games very quickly and doesn’t sacrifice quality while doing so.

I’m particularly fond of their recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game and El Paso, Elsewhere. I Am Your Beast is a fast-paced first-person shooter and another one of the studio’s more popular games.

Like many Strange Scaffold titles, it has a strong central narrative, and I Am Your Beast is no different.

That said, it also has particularly satisfying and brutal gameplay that makes its levels absolutely thrilling to run through.

It came out on Xbox Series X a few months ago and is now making its way to Xbox Game Pass.

This is definitely the game fans of shooters should check out on the service this month.

4

Cataclismo

Coming to PC on September 4

For the crowd of Game Pass subscribers who primarily play on PC, Cataclismo is worth a shot. It mixes tower defense, real-time strategy, and base-building game elements to create a fantasy game that feels pretty unique.

It has an impressive suite of creation tools that players can use during the day to fortify their location or what they need to protect during the day.

Then, at night, they have to hope those structures, and the characters they’re commanding, hold up against hordes of enemies.

While only being available on PC limits its appeal somewhat, Catalcismo is still a really engaging game that you can quite easily sink a lot of time into. It’s a great value add for a service like Game Pass.

3

Frostpunk 2

Coming to Xbox Series X on September 18

While Cataclismo is only on PC, Xbox Series X players should be keeping an eye on Frostpunk 2.

Already available through PC Game Pass, this is a post-apocalyptic city-builder where players must balance building out a city and keeping its residents happy in a desolate, deadly tundra.

Like its predecessor, Frostpunk 2 is full of tough decisions, even if it now works on a more macro-level scale when it comes to the decisions players have to make.

It’s an amazing game on PC, and if 11 bit Studios can make it feel alright to play on a controller, it’s well worth your time on console as well.

2

Hotel Barcelona

Coming to PC and Xbox Series X on September 26

Suda51 and SWERY are two Japanese game developers known for making incredibly innovative but ridiculously weird games.

They worked together to create Hotel Barcelona, which is best described as a weird, horror movie-inspired take on Dead Cells.

It’s a sidescrolling action roguelike, but unlike many of its peers, Hotel Barcelona rewards death. After you die, a Slasher Phantom appears and performs all the actions you did on your previous run.

Over time, you can take advantage of these to pull off some helpful distractions or combos during combat, getting you deeper into that specific run.

I played the game for quite a while at GDC earlier this year, and have been itching to play more ever since.

I think it has real potential to be a sleeper hit this year on Game Pass and one of the better games that both Suda51 and SWERY have ever made.

1

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Coming to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Cloud Gaming on September 4

Hollow Knight: Silksong needs little introduction. It’s a sequel to one of the most beloved indie games and Metroidvanias of all time.

It also has quite an infamous reputation because we saw little of the game between its announcement in 2019 and the reveal of its release date last month.

On September 4, it’s finally out, and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers don’t even have to go out of their way to buy it.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is looking to be a very well-made game in its own right, but it’ll likely take over the gaming zeitgeist throughout the month of September.

As such, it’s definitely something that Game Pass Ultimate subscribers should go out of their way to play if they aren’t already buying the game on another platform.

Not a very exciting month for Xbox Game Pass

Outside of Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hotel Barcelona, I’m fairly unimpressed with this month’s Game Pass Ultimate lineup.

Games like Paw Patrol World and RoadCraft are of no interest to me, while I’ve already gotten my fill of Cataclismo and Frostpunk 2 on PC.

The games coming to Microsoft’s subscription service in September all really appeal to specific niches. But outside of Hollow Knight: Silksong, they’re tougher to broadly recommend.

We may be in a bit of a lull before a busy October for Game Pass Ultimate, as multiple Xbox-published games like The Outer Worlds 2 finally come out next month.