Game Pass November 2026 Wave 1: Every Game, Date and Tier

The headliners are Football Manager 27 and Warhammer Survivors on November 10, then John Carpenter's Toxic Commando on November 12. On November 15, eight older games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark join the Essential tier, and 13 games leave the library.

Image: iam8bit Presents, Steam store screenshot

Every wave 1 game, date and tier

Dates and tiers are as Xbox Wire listed them on November 3 (Xbox Wire). "Ultimate + PC" means Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass; "all three" adds Game Pass Premium.

Xbox Wire's November 6 roundup also lists 9 Kings, from Hooded Horse, for November 12 (Xbox Wire, November 6). It is not new to the service: November 12 is the day 9 Kings leaves Early Access for its 1.0 release, and it has been on PC Game Pass in Game Preview since August 14, 2025. Shrek 2 Remastered launches the same week on Xbox at $29.99 with no Game Pass tag.

The five to install first, ranked

Our order is a judgment call: games you can share with a friend come first, then the ones you would otherwise pay for.

1. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School. Day one on Game Pass, and Xbox's listing calls it "the first open world escape room game". It costs $19.99 on Xbox and Steam, and Steam has it at $16.99 until November 19 (prices read November 7). Steam lists "both online and splitscreen couch co-op". Puzzle games with a partner are the kind you finish and drop, which is exactly what a subscription is for.
2. Warhammer Survivors. Day one on November 10. Auroch Digital made it with poncle, the Vampire Survivors studio, and it costs $7.99 on Xbox. That is cheap to buy outright, but on Game Pass you can see whether the bullet-heaven loop holds you before paying anything. Our Warhammer Survivors characters list covers the 17 champions named so far, and the release date and price guide covers the platforms.
3. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando. Saber Interactive's zombie shooter for "a 4-player squad" launched on Steam on March 12. It normally costs $39.99 there and is on sale for $19.99 until November 9, so once the sale ends, Game Pass is the cheaper way in. It is the strongest four-player pick in the wave.
4. Thronefall. A small strategy game where you "build a humble kingdom by day and defend it by night". It came out on Steam in October 2024 and sells for $12.99 there, and Xbox tags it as optimized for handhelds.
5. Football Manager 27. Wave 1 adds the PC early access build on November 3 and the full PC and Console versions on November 10. Steam's pre-purchase price is $53.99, the most expensive game in the wave. Our FM27 release date and Launch Preview guide covers the save carry-over.

Image: Focus Entertainment, Steam store screenshot

Premium gets half the list

Game Pass Premium promises "New XBOX-published games within 1yr of launch" and more than 200 games, against Ultimate's "New games on day one" and 500-plus (Xbox). Wave 1 shows what that means in practice. Of the 16 games in the table, 8 reach Premium: Pit of Goblin, Void/Breaker, Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, Thronefall, Toxic Commando and PAW Patrol: Dino World arrive there directly, and Vampire Crawlers (November 4) and Aphelion (November 17) move down from the top tiers. Vampire Crawlers has been out since April 21 and Aphelion since April 28, so Premium gets them about six and a half months after launch.

All six games Xbox labels "Available on day one" skip Premium: Escape Academy 2, both versions of FM27, Warhammer Survivors, Tanuki: Pon's Summer and Hope in the City. If those are why you subscribe, Premium is the wrong tier this month.

Cloud play is capped each month: the Xbox page lists 5 hours on Essential, 10 on Premium and 15 on Ultimate. Streaming the November games instead of installing them eats into that.

Co-op picks in wave 1

November leans hard on co-op, but the player counts differ. For two people, Escape Academy 2 works on one couch or online, and PAW Patrol: Dino World is a two-player game that Steam lists under Shared/Split Screen Co-op.

Groups of four have more choice, all of it online. Toxic Commando, Gravhounds (a co-op "action builder" for one to four players, still in Game Preview) and Pit of Goblin ("up to three goblin buddies") all take a full squad. Firefighting Simulator: Ignite has a "4-player coop mode", or an NPC crew if you play alone.

For couch games outside Game Pass, see our best co-op games list.

Image: Mythwright, Steam store screenshot

Essential's eight classics on November 15

Essential, the entry tier with "50+ games" on the Xbox page, gets eight older games on November 15: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Gears of War: Judgment, Halo: Spartan Assault, Perfect Dark, Viva Piñata and Viva Piñata: TIP. All are cloud and console except Spartan Assault, which also runs on PC. None of the 16 wave 1 games reach Essential, so for Essential members these eight are the whole month so far.

Leaving Game Pass on November 10 and 15

Football Manager 26 goes first. The PC version and FM26 Console Edition leave on November 10, the day the full FM27 launches (Xbox Wire, October 20). Thirteen more games leave on November 15, and Xbox suggests buying them at a discount before they go: 1000xResist, Barbie Horse Trails, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Firefighting Simulator: The Squad, GoldenEye 007, Great God Grove, Moonlighter, Pigeon Simulator, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, Relic Hunters Legend, Total Chaos, Winter Burrow and Wreckfest.

GoldenEye 007 is the surprise exit. It leaves the same day Perfect Dark arrives on Essential. Firefighting Simulator: The Squad also leaves ten days after Firefighting Simulator: Ignite arrives, so the library still has a Firefighting Simulator after the 15th.

References

• Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Escape Academy 2, Thronefall, Warhammer Survivors and more, Xbox Wire (November 3): dates, tiers, Essential additions, leaving list
• Next Week on Xbox: November 9 to 13, Xbox Wire (November 6): 9 Kings, FM27, Warhammer Survivors price
• Next Week on Xbox: November 2 to 6, Xbox Wire (October 30): Gravhounds, Pit of Goblin, Void/Breaker, Escape Academy 2, FM27 early access
• Coming to Xbox Game Pass: October 2026 wave 2, Xbox Wire (October 20): Football Manager 26 leaving November 10
• Coming to Game Pass: Assassin's Creed Mirage, 9 Kings (Game Preview), Rain World and more, Xbox Wire (August 5, 2025) and 9 Kings 1.0 announcement, Steam (September 16): 9 Kings on PC Game Pass since 2025, 1.0 on November 12
• Xbox Game Pass plans, Xbox: tier library sizes and cloud hours
• Steam store pages: Escape Academy 2, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Thronefall, Football Manager 27, Warhammer Survivors, Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, Pit of Goblin, Gravhounds, PAW Patrol: Dino World, Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion