Best Indie Games on Xbox Game Pass 2026

Game Pass is the best thing that ever happened to indie gaming, and I will die on that hill. Before subscriptions, most people wouldn’t spend fifteen quid on a game they’d never heard of from a studio they couldn’t pronounce… and I get that, I really do. But now you’ve got hundreds of indie games sitting right there on the service, pre-downloaded and waiting, and the only thing stopping you from discovering your new favourite game of all time is the fact that you keep scrolling past them to play Forza again. I’ve spent more hours with the indie side of Game Pass than I have with the blockbusters, and honestly the quality in 2026 is absurd — so here are the best indie games on Xbox Game Pass right now, picked by someone who genuinely plays more indie games than AAA.

The must-plays everyone’s talking about

These are the indie games that broke through the noise and became genuinely unmissable — the ones your friends won’t shut up about, the ones that swept the awards shows, the ones that justify the subscription fee all on their own.

Hades II — Xbox Series X|S, PC
Supergiant’s roguelike sequel took everything brilliant about the original and somehow made it deeper, faster and more narratively ambitious, with Melinoe carving her way through the underworld in a campaign that rewards failure just as generously as success. The combat is razor-sharp, the voice acting is phenomenal, and the relationship system gives you genuine reasons to keep dying and trying again long after you’ve technically “finished” the game. If you only play one indie on Game Pass this year, make it this one.

Hollow Knight: Silksong — Xbox Series X|S, PC
The wait was long enough that it became a meme, but Team Cherry delivered something extraordinary — a Metroidvania that feels faster and more fluid than its predecessor without sacrificing any of the atmospheric world-building that made Hallownest so special. Hornet is a joy to control, the boss fights are impeccably designed, and the interconnected map rewards exploration in ways that constantly surprise you even thirty hours in. It’s one of the best indie games on Xbox Game Pass in 2026 by a considerable margin, and it’s the sort of thing you’ll want to take slowly because you don’t want it to end.

Slay the Spire 2 — Xbox Series X|S, PC
The deck-building roguelike that defined a genre returns with new characters, new mechanics and an art style that’s evolved from charming to genuinely gorgeous. Every run feels meaningfully different, the card synergies are endlessly satisfying to discover, and the difficulty scaling is pitched perfectly for newcomers and veterans alike. I’ve lost entire weekends to this without even noticing.

The hidden gems you’ve scrolled past

This is where I get evangelical, because these are the games buried three pages deep in the library that absolutely deserve your attention — the ones that nobody’s marketing budget told you about, the ones that show up with no fanfare and turn out to be extraordinary.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A tabletop-RPG-inspired narrative game about survival, identity and community aboard a drifting starship, where every dice roll carries genuine emotional weight and the writing is so sharp it makes most AAA scripts look like placeholder text. The original was a quiet masterpiece, and this sequel expands on it in every direction without losing the intimacy that made it special. If you’ve got even a passing interest in science fiction that actually has something to say, stop scrolling past this immediately.

Pentiment — Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Obsidian’s historical murder mystery set in a 16th-century Bavarian abbey is unlike anything else on Game Pass, a game built almost entirely around conversation, investigation and moral choices that ripple across decades of in-game time. The illuminated manuscript art style is breathtaking, the writing is Obsidian at their very best, and it’s the sort of game that rewards patience and curiosity in equal measure. It’s been on the service for a while now and I still meet people who’ve never heard of it, which borders on criminal.

Cocoon — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A puzzle game from the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside, where you carry entire worlds inside orbs and nest them within each other to solve increasingly mind-bending spatial puzzles. There’s no dialogue, no text, no tutorials — just pure, wordless design genius that trusts you completely to figure things out. It’s one of those games that makes you feel genuinely clever, and it’s over before it outstays its welcome.

Star Trucker — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A space trucking sim that has no right being as absorbing as it is — you’re hauling cargo across the cosmos in a beaten-up rig, managing fuel and repairs, tuning the radio, watching nebulae drift past your windscreen. It’s meditative and oddly beautiful, the kind of game you put on after a long day when you want something that asks nothing of you except to enjoy the ride. The modding community has really taken off around it too, and there’s a solid roundup of the best Star Trucker mods if you want to see how far people have pushed it.

Best indie co-op on Game Pass

The real magic of Game Pass for co-op is that everyone already has the game, which eliminates the single biggest barrier to playing anything together — convincing your mates to actually buy the thing you’ve been raving about for three weeks.

It Takes Two — Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Hazelight’s co-op platformer-adventure remains the gold standard for two-player games, a constantly inventive journey through a collapsing marriage that somehow manages to be hilarious, heartfelt and mechanically brilliant all at once. Every chapter introduces entirely new gameplay ideas and then discards them before they get stale, which is the kind of creative confidence most studios would kill for. If you haven’t played this with someone you like spending time with, you’re missing out on something genuinely special.

Neon White — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A speedrunning FPS card game set in heaven — and yes, that description is accurate — where you blast through gorgeous minimalist levels in seconds, discard weapon cards for movement abilities and chase increasingly absurd time targets against your friends’ leaderboard ghosts. The competitive co-op element of comparing times and hunting shortcuts is wildly addictive, and the anime-visual-novel story is so earnestly ridiculous that you can’t help but love it.

Tunic — Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
An isometric action-adventure where you play as a tiny fox exploring a mysterious world, gradually uncovering an in-game instruction manual that’s written in an indecipherable language. It’s a love letter to the feeling of playing games before the internet existed, when you had to figure everything out yourself and share discoveries with friends — and it’s absolutely brilliant played alongside someone, swapping theories and breakthroughs like you’re twelve years old again. Fans of genre-blending adventure games will find a lot to love here.

The short ones (under 5 hours)

Sometimes you don’t want a hundred-hour commitment, you want something you can start and finish in a single evening and still feel like you’ve had a complete experience… these are those games, and they’re all absolutely worth your time.

A Short Hike — PC
A tiny, perfect game about a bird climbing a mountain on a provincial island, talking to other hikers, finding treasure and just… existing in a space that feels genuinely peaceful. You can finish it in ninety minutes, and you’ll spend the rest of the week wishing you hadn’t because there’s nothing else quite like it. It’s the video game equivalent of a warm cup of tea on a cold afternoon.

Unpacking — Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
A zen puzzle game about unpacking boxes across various stages of a woman’s life, where the objects you place tell a wordless story about growing up, moving on and finding yourself. It’s gentle, meditative and surprisingly emotional — the kind of game that sneaks up on you with a lump in your throat when you’re just trying to figure out where the toaster goes.

Venba — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A narrative cooking game about an Indian immigrant family in Canada, where you prepare Tamil recipes while navigating questions of cultural identity, generational disconnect and what it means to preserve the things that make you who you are. It’s barely two hours long and it will absolutely wreck you in the best possible way — the cooking mechanics are satisfying, the pixel art is gorgeous, and the emotional payoff is devastating for something so short.

New additions worth trying

The Game Pass library rotates constantly, and 2026 has brought some genuinely exciting new indie additions that deserve a look before the algorithm buries them under the next blockbuster launch.

Hi-Fi Rush — Xbox Series X|S, PC
Tango Gameworks’ rhythm-action brawler is pure joy in game form — a cel-shaded adventure where the entire world pulses to the beat of the soundtrack and your combat combos sync with the music in ways that feel impossibly satisfying. It launched as a shadow drop, became an instant cult classic, and remains one of the most relentlessly entertaining games on the entire service. The fact that it’s still here and still this good is reason enough to keep your subscription active.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! — Xbox Series X|S, PC
A slapstick comedy adventure set in a fictionalised northern English town that is, quite simply, the funniest game I’ve played in years. You’re a tiny salesman slapping your way through increasingly absurd situations involving chip shops, market stalls and aggressive pigeons, and the whole thing is voiced and animated with such manic energy that you’ll be crying with laughter inside ten minutes. It’s short, it’s weird, it’s utterly British, and it’s exactly the sort of thing that Game Pass was built for.

The best indie games on Xbox Game Pass in 2026 are proof that the subscription model genuinely works for smaller studios and the players who’d never have found them otherwise. The library keeps growing, the quality keeps climbing, and there’s never been a better time to stop scrolling past the games you don’t recognise and actually give them a chance. If you’re after more recommendations across the Xbox ecosystem, keep an eye on the site for regular roundups covering the best of Game Pass each month.

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