The 20 best Xbox games
What is an “Xbox game”? Fairly recently, the answer was simple: An Xbox game is a game that you play on your Xbox. But now, with Microsoft pushing a multiplatform strategy — and openly challenging preconceived notions of what even counts as a platform — determining the best Xbox games . For us, the answer […]
What is an “Xbox game”? Fairly recently, the answer was simple: An Xbox game is a game that you play on your Xbox. But now, with Microsoft pushing a multiplatform strategy — and openly challenging preconceived notions of what even counts as a platform — determining the best Xbox games .
For us, the answer is still pretty simple, if somewhat evolved. Some games (Halo, Forza) will always be Xbox games regardless of how many platforms they land on, the same way a mobile Mario game is still a Nintendo game. But others fall under the broader category of, if an Xbox is the primary way you play games, you shouldn’t miss these — regardless of who published or developed them.
What follows is our list of the best Xbox games as of April 2025.
How we pick the best games on Xbox
The Polygon staff plays a lot of video games, and everything in this list comes personally recommended by at least one of us. We determined what should be on our list of the best Xbox games by looking at the quality of each title, but also with an eye for breadth and variety — so you should find something on the list you’ll enjoy, no matter what genres of game you like, how much time you have, or what vibe you are after.
