Xbox just dropped the first Game Pass lineup of November: 15 games through November 17, six of them day one, eight Rare and Xbox classics coming to Game Pass Essential, and 13 games leaving on November 15. Here's every date, every tier, and what to play before it's gone.
The first Game Pass wave of November is here, and it’s stacked. Xbox Wire posted the lineup today, Tuesday, November 3: two games available right now, 13 more landing between November 4 and November 17, six of them day one on Game Pass, plus a big batch of Rare and Xbox classics heading to Game Pass Essential on November 15. Escape Academy 2, Warhammer Survivors and Thronefall lead the pack, and Don’t Nod’s Aphelion joins Game Pass Premium on November 17.
What you need to know
- Available today (Nov 3): Football Manager 27 on PC (day one) and Pit of Goblin.
- Day one on Game Pass this wave: Football Manager 27 (PC), Escape Academy 2, Football Manager 27 Console, Warhammer Survivors, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer and Hope in the City.
- Biggest Essential drop in a while: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Nuts & Bolts, Perfect Dark, both Viva Piñata games, Gears of War: Judgment and Halo: Spartan Assault all join Game Pass Essential on November 15.
- Leaving November 15: 13 games, including GoldenEye 007, Wreckfest, 1000xResist, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Moonlighter.
Available today, Tuesday, November 3
- Football Manager 27 (PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one. Xbox Wire says it lets you “flow from the tactics board to the touchline” with “greater control, smoother discovery and a more enticing football world.”
- Pit of Goblin (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. An online horror co-op where you play a scrappy goblin scavenging dungeons, dodging traps and running from monsters to feed the Goblin King-Queen. Team up or go rogue.
Coming soon: full schedule
Wednesday, November 4
- Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, PC): now coming to Game Pass Premium, joining Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. From the Vampire Survivors team, it turns Survivors into what Xbox Wire calls a “hyper turn based, rogue-lite card driven blobber.”
- Void/Breaker (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. Launches in its 1.0 full release and arrives on Xbox Series X|S and Cloud Gaming. It’s a roguelite FPS with deep gun modding where you fight to break out of a loop run by a hostile AI.
Thursday, November 5
- Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one. Xbox Wire bills it as “the first open world escape room game,” with online and local two-player co-op.
- Firefighting Simulator: Ignite (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. Fight fires as a U.S. firefighter with up to three friends or an NPC crew.
- MySims Cozy Bundle (Cloud, Console, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Now on console and Cloud Gaming. Retro re-releases of MySims and MySims Kingdom.
Tuesday, November 10
- Football Manager 27 Console (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one.
- Warhammer Survivors (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one. Officially licensed bullet-heaven action from Auroch Digital, made in partnership with Vampire Survivors developer poncle.
- Tanuki: Pon’s Summer (Cloud, Console, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one. Ride a BMX around town as Pon, delivering packages and doing odd jobs (sushi chef, sumo wrestler) to fix the shrine before the Tanuki Festival.
Wednesday, November 11
- Hope in the City (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Day one. A mystery adventure where 17-year-old Hope Song turns sketches into evidence after her parents go missing.
- Thronefall (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. Minimalist strategy: build your kingdom by day, defend it by night.
Thursday, November 12
- John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. Four-player co-op action survival against huge zombie swarms.
Tuesday, November 17
- Aphelion (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, PC): now coming to Game Pass Premium, joining Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. A third-person sci-fi adventure from Don’t Nod (Jusant, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage), made in partnership with the European Space Agency. Astronaut Ariane crash-lands on a frozen planet and has to save her injured partner, Thomas, and you control both characters.
- Paw Patrol: Dino World (Cloud, Console, PC): Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass. Solo or two-player co-op.
Coming to Game Pass Essential on November 15
This is the part Xbox fans are going to talk about. Eight classics join the Game Pass Essential library on November 15:
- Banjo-Kazooie (Cloud and Console)
- Banjo-Tooie (Cloud and Console)
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Cloud and Console)
- Gears of War: Judgment (Cloud and Console)
- Halo: Spartan Assault (Cloud, Console and PC)
- Perfect Dark (Cloud and Console)
- Viva Piñata (Cloud and Console)
- Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (Cloud and Console)
Also new and in-game perks
- Gravhounds (Game Preview, Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, PC): available now on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Four-player co-op where you’re a bio-engineered space dog grabbing loot while the swarm gets meaner.
- League of Legends (PC): new ARAM Mayhem: Journey to Stardom season with K/DA, True Damage, Heartsteel and Pentakill.
- Valorant (Console, PC): new Agent Hush. Game Pass members on every tier get all agents through Game Pass benefits.
- Microsoft Sudoku (PC), Nov 10: ad-free play, double XP and more Coins in Daily Challenges for Game Pass members, with Ultimate members keeping the perks on mobile.
- The First Descendant Legacy Bundle (Console, PC), Nov 17: exclusive Back Attachment, Spray, 10 paints and boosts for every Game Pass tier.
Leaving Game Pass on November 15
What are you playing first from Game Pass this month?
Vote and see what other Xbox fans think.
Like having a say? Get OnPoint Weekly or argue it out on Discord.
Play them now or grab them on sale before they go. Xbox Wire says these are discounted to buy before they leave:
- 1000xResist
- Barbie Horse Trails
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- Firefighting Simulator: The Squad
- GoldenEye 007 (Cloud and Console)
- Great God Grove
- Moonlighter
- Pigeon Simulator
- Police Simulator: Patrol Officers
- Relic Hunters Legend
- Total Chaos
- Winter Burrow
- Wreckfest
OnPoint’s take: The headline for us isn’t the new indies, it’s that Essential drop. Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark and Viva Piñata hitting the cheapest Game Pass tier means the most affordable way into Xbox just got a whole lot of Rare history, plus Gears and Halo on top. That’s real value for the players who don’t pay for Ultimate, and that’s how you grow the family. Day one, Escape Academy 2 and Warhammer Survivors are the picks, and Aphelion on November 17 is the one to watch if you love a story game. The one that stings is GoldenEye 007 leaving on November 15, so if you’ve been putting off that replay, you have 12 days. Join this side or just go ahead and subscribe to Game Pass. That’s it.
Image: Xbox Wire
Sources
- Xbox Wire: Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, Thronefall, Warhammer Survivors, and More (Megan Spurr, Senior Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass, Nov 3, 2026)
- @XboxGamePass on X
- @XboxWire on X
