Published Aug 2, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared’s first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.
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Xbox Game Pass, like PlayStation Plus, is a subscription service that gamers can get great value from, depending on how many games they plan to play each month or whether they know it already boasts a ton of games they’d be interested in playing. There are a bunch of 100-hour-long games on Xbox Game Pass for anyone who’d like to fill the month with a single game that they can devote all their time to, but not everyone will have the time to spare for games that take even 10 hours to beat, much less 100.
Xbox Game Pass’ day-one Halo: Campaign Evolved is ending July on a strong note, and there are always plenty of games that gamers may be interested in perusing at their leisure once they’ve rolled credits on the remake. Anyone who wants to be able to beat a game they pick up in a single sitting, or has an interest in an indie game whose quality far exceeds its average playtime, should look no further than these five titles currently available on Xbox Game Pass.
Few games that attempt to be surreal and gratifying actually deliver on that promise, but watching a minute or two of Superliminal is all anyone may need in order to compel them to it, and it won’t take them that much more time to actually beat it thereafter. It’s alarmingly short, averaging about two to four hours, and this keeps it refined (though some may argue it’s underbaked, given its short playtime).
If a puzzle game has ever been fatiguing, it’s no wonder why some fans would set it down for a while or find it tedious while playing for more than a handful of sessions. Fortunately, Superliminal’s mind-bending puzzle gameplay doesn’t have that problem, as long as players have a couple of hours to spare and an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Besides, what makes Superliminal’s puzzles so fun is the perspectives in which they’re solved, less so than the difficulty or challenge of the puzzles themselves. Superliminal is not Portal, for instance, and its ending may surprise players. If nothing else, fans may wish that Superliminal wasn’t as short, if for no other reason than to marinate in its gameplay for a while longer. Superliminal is currently available on Xbox Game Pass’ Essential, Premium, and Ultimate tiers.
Firewatch tells a quaint mystery with what little time it has to tell it—a visual novel/walking sim, basically, with the mystery unraveling as players explore. Firewatch is wholly unique in its premise, at least regarding the fact that players are stationed at a fire lookout watchtower, and, being a brisk five-hour indie game that is wholly narrative-driven, it’s a joy that Firewatch’s storytelling and writing are so superb, particularly in dialogue between Henry and Delilah via walkie-talkies.
Firewatch is packed with hazy orange forest fire/sunrise hues and a palette of lush colors by iconic graphic artist Olly Moss, who co-founded indie Firewatch studio Campo Santo and was the game’s art director.
Firewatch also does a great job of stirring dissent and dread without anything being truly or legitimately frightening. Of course, anyone expecting Firewatch to be a fantastical or thrilling experience, either in terms of the story or gameplay, will likely be disappointed, even if it does scratch an itch by only being four or five hours long and available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Firewatch is currently available on Xbox Game Pass’ Essential, Premium, and Ultimate tiers.
INSIDE is a hauntingly existential little game that leans on the strengths of Playdead’s previous game, LIMBO, but is arguably the better of the two in terms of visuals, mechanics, atmosphere, and narrative. Similar to Little Nightmares (which is ironic, as the two games were released close to one another), INSIDE is a stunning and creative platformer that depicts a tiny protagonist navigating a bleak world.
It won’t be surprising if INSIDE continues to inspire new waves of atmospheric horror and puzzle-platformers for decades. So, with the fact that it’s available on Xbox Game Pass right now, there’s no better time to play such an iconic indie game. INSIDE is currently available on Xbox Game Pass’ Essential, Premium, and Ultimate tiers.
Capcom’s Resident Evil 3 remake is, by and large, not a terrific remake. That said, for all intents and purposes, neither is the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Nevertheless, both are good Resident Evil games, and Resident Evil 3 is considerably shorter, too, averaging at about six or seven hours to roll credits. Resident Evil games aren’t typically long games, anyway, but Resident Evil 3 is blisteringly quick, even if players aren’t rushing through or speedrunning it.
This is partly because content that should’ve been there is missing. Funny enough, all these years later, there’s an official cut content mod for Resident Evil 3’s remake in the works that is striving to correct that. Either way, the Resident Evil 3 remake will be fun to play for gamers who adored the Resident Evil 2 remake, only without the A and B scenarios that players can select.
Resident Evil 3’s remake is straightforward, maybe the most straightforward of any Resident Evil game, and surely of any Resident Evil remake. Even if that’s to its detriment in some ways, fans can get a great Resident Evil experience for free on Xbox Game Pass and beat it in much less than 10 hours. That alone is a phenomenal reason to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass and finally give the Resident Evil 3 remake a try if fans haven’t already. Resident Evil 3 is currently available on Xbox Game Pass’ Premium and Ultimate tiers.
Donut County is almost startlingly short at only two hours, and it makes the most of its incredibly short runtime. It’s a remarkably simple game, despite how silly it is, with fans playing as a literal hole that moves around to swallow everything on the surface of every level, essentially.
Donut County is the epitome of a ‘turn your brain off’ game—it’s fun, funny, short, and sweet. This also makes Donut County a fantastic Xbox Game Pass game, where players who might not have heard of it before or been interested in it at all can at least play it for free and see if they like it (the asterisk being that they must be subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, of course). Donut County is currently available on Xbox Game Pass’ Premium and Ultimate tiers.
Donut County will be a treat for anyone who adores the viral Seattle sensation Jimothy the raccoon, who has since been featured in games like Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft.
COCOON is a wholehearted puzzle game that could take players much longer than 10 hours if they have difficulty grasping its core features, but the average playtime comes out to about five hours. Indeed, players go from one puzzle encounter to the next as a cute beetle-like entity traversing worlds via orbs in visually striking landscapes.
The trippiness of hopping from one world to another is fascinating in COCOON’s gameplay, with orbs containing these worlds often carried on players’ tiny backs. COCOON even has boss battles, and each is an intricate puzzle in its own right.
Like many games on this list, COCOON is debatably the perfect length forits genre and style. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, allowing its puzzle-solving mechanics to be satisfying yet not stretched too thin, and there’s no bloat at all between mesmerizing biomes.
Anything much longer and it could have certainly worn thin, showcasing how excellent the work of Jeppe Carlsen (lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE) is. COCOON is not currently on** Xbox Game Pass**, but it could be added in the future.
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Number of Devices Concurrently
Standard subscription plan allows two accounts playing at once, with four accounts playing at once on Friends & Family plan
Highest Resolution
1440p streaming
Number of Accounts
~35 million subscribers
Compatibility
Xbox Series X|S, PC, ROG Xbox Ally, Android, iOS, Samsung & LG TVs, Meta Quest, Web Browser
Price Per Month
Essential $9.99 | Premium $14.99 | Ultimate $29.99
Price per year
12-month membership codes only available at certain retailers
A rotating catalog of games reshapes how players discover new worlds, between large scale blockbusters, inventive indie projects, and long running favorites, all without paying full price for each title. New first party releases often arrive the moment they launch to grant members immediate access, while different tiers determine online features, cloud access, and discounts.