10 Most Addictive Games On Xbox Game Pass

Part of the value that comes with an Xbox Game Pass subscription is that you can play any game in the library as much as you want, for as long as you want, at least as long as your sub lasts or until the game gets removed.

With a theoretically limitless supply of gaming at your fingertips, you basically have carte blanche to completely lose yourself in anything for hours on end.

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Arguably the best use of a Game Pass sub is playing the big-name day one releases, but perhaps more than that is the potential of finding your next true gaming obsession. There’s something magical about a game that sucks you in so utterly that you feel compelled to boot it up at least once per day, if not more than that.

Theoretically, any game could do this, but there is a certain selection of games in the Game Pass library that do it a little better than others, those that really give you those delicious brain chemicals.

10 Vampire Survivors

All The Dopamine, None Of The Predation

To paraphrase several more erudite individuals than myself, part of what makes Vampire Survivors’ runaway success so remarkable is that it utilizes many of the same dopamine-inducing mechanics as the most predatory microtransaction-packed mobile games, but it doesn’t actually charge you anything beyond the flat cost of entry.

Considering you can play it on Game Pass, you don’t even need to pay the cost of entry!

You can get yourself as addicted as your little heart desires, and it won’t cost you a thing beyond time and, maybe, sleep. Vampire Survivors is, at its core, “number go up simulator.”

You kill as many enemies as you can, get as much money and experience as you can, raise your stats as high as you can, and keep doing all of it until you drop dead. It’s the simplest kind of lizard-brain pleasure you can derive from a video game, and it’s absolutely beautiful for it.

I like to think of Vampire Survivors as the bright side of addictive video games. Specifically, it can beat you over the head with high numbers and flashing lights, but just for the sake of entertainment rather than trying to steal your money.

9 Enter The Gungeon

“Guns, Lots Of Guns”

Top-down roguelikes and roguelites have been one of my bread and butter game genres ever since I got horrendously addicted to the original Binding of Isaac in my freshman year of college.

Once you understand how these kinds of games work, they become tests of skill and three-dimensional thinking, optimizing builds and planning ahead. One of the best modern instances of this on Game Pass is Enter the Gungeon.

Enter the Gungeon has plenty of Isaac’s DNA in the mix, favoring projectile-heavy combat mixed with shot and ability-altering collectible items. Where the game distinguishes itself is in its massive array of unlockable guns and gun-adjacent objects.

Just being able to switch your weapon out on the fly while maintaining abilities from power-ups adds a whole extra dimension to your combat abilities.

I’ve got about 70 hours logged on Enter the Gungeon, and it would probably be exponentially more if I hadn’t forced myself to go cold turkey for the sake of the rest of my backlog. Even now, I still feel the depths of the Gungeon calling out to me like a siren song.

8 PowerWash Simulator

Better Than Cleaning Your Actual Home

You know how, when you have something important to do that you’re putting off, you tend to start cleaning your home as a default form of procrastinating?

Even if it’s not for the noblest of reasons, there’s something calming and pleasing about the task of cleaning, making order where once there was chaos. I think that’s part of the hypnotic appeal of PowerWash Simulator.

PowerWash Simulator is the perfect second-screen game, something to occupy half of your brain while you’re watching TV, listening to a podcast, or idly chatting with friends on Discord.

It’s a game that demands very little of you beyond pointing water at dirty spots and making them go away. It’s so simple to do, and you can see your progress on any given job tangibly increasing right in front of you, all leading up to that satisfying time-elapse at the end.

Really, the only downside of PowerWash Simulator’s addictive nature is eye strain. Seriously, turn the brightness down on your monitor a bit if you’re playing this one for a while. I got really bad eye strain after a marathon session. It’s all the staring at single spots while you clean that does it.

7 Mullet MadJack

There’s A Metaphor In Here Somewhere

Mullet MadJack’s B-movie-like framing device has you playing as a crowdsourced bounty hunter who needs a direct injection of dopamine at least once every ten seconds, or he will drop dead on the spot.

There’s probably something to be said about a game with such a setting on a list of addictive video games on a subscription service, but why would you be thinking about that when you could be playing it?

Mullet MadJack is all about entering something akin to a high-speed fugue state, with every robot you shoot, stab, electrocute, bisect, or kick into a vending machine resetting your ever-ticking timer.

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Generally speaking, unless you drag your feet, it’s not that hard to keep the timer topped up. Eventually, you’ll reach a state where the timer rarely drops below 9 or 8 seconds because you’re killing enemies and chugging soda so rapidly.

While Mullet MadJack is technically a roguelike, it feels different from other roguelikes I’ve played. For lack of a better explanation, it kind of feels like… it wants to be played? Like most of its mechanics empower you rather than hinder you. It’s an odd spin, but darn if it doesn’t work.

6 Minecraft

Well, Duh

Yeah, you were probably expecting this one. If ever there were a singular game to justify a Game Pass subscription in perpetuity, it’d be Minecraft, and I don’t think you really need me to explain why.

It’s the game that single-handedly captured the hearts and minds of at least two entire generations, and will probably continue to do so until the heat death of the universe.

I still remember booting up Minecraft way back in its pre-release days, when the game was comparatively much simpler than it is now.

Even without all the in-depth mechanics, the freedom potential was positively off the charts. I attempted to make a facsimile of the Dai-Gurren from Gurren Lagann as my house, connected to the ground via minecart rollercoaster, just because I had the time and resources to do so.

That’s Minecraft’s enduring appeal: it’s a sandbox in the truest sense of the word, an open world which you can freely shape and reshape as your whims desire, like a fickle ancient deity. If you’ve got an idea, you can put it into motion with a little planning and gumption.

5 Dead Cells

An Endless Metroidvania Flow State

It’s always fun to get into a flow state in just about any kind of video game, where you know exactly how you’re supposed to move and fight to make it through a situation without a scratch.

There’s something distinct about doing it in a Metroidvania game, though, an intersection of mechanical knowledge, precision timing, and instinctive navigation. I’ve had that feeling in various ‘vanias, though I feel it most frequently in Dead Cells.

Dead Cells’ roguelike DNA gives it a certain sense of tantalizing expediency. You don’t necessarily have to complete every area in a hurry, though you do get rewards if you do.

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However, seamlessly slashing and dodging your way through hordes of enemies while you bounce and roll through random terrain and elevations makes you feel like some kind of living superball.

There’s something about this game that, intentionally or otherwise, makes you want to move fast. It’s not even to the detriment of its stats and weapon systems; you just learn the systems or get good at speed-reading so you can quickly find what you need and mash through so you can get back to the action.

4 We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie

Soak In The Vibes

For those of you who grew up in colder climates, did you ever challenge yourself to make the largest snowball you possibly could? Make a little ball on the ground, start rolling it, and eventually it’s even bigger than you are?

It’s quite satisfying, and it’s that same addictive sense of satisfaction that keeps me replaying the levels of We Love Katamari.

We Love Katamari is kind of a midpoint on the “addictive satisfaction” scale between PowerWash Simulator and Mullet MadJack; its levels require a level of speed and perfection and encourage you to pursue both even after you’ve already cleared them.

However, thanks to the game’s generally more relaxed vibe, bolstered by its excellent soundtrack, it doesn’t feel quite hectic. It’s a cleaner kind of high-speed fun, less like gunning it on a desert highway straightaway and more like navigating a winding, hilly backroad.

Even if you don’t particularly care about setting speed or size records, We Love Katamari is just a nice little constructive task. You find objects smaller than you, roll ‘em up, get bigger. It’s an easy gameplay loop to understand, and easy loops tend to be addictive.

3 Neon White

You Can Do It Faster

I don’t consider myself much of a speedrunner when I play games. As long as the level gets beaten, I don’t usually care how long it ends up taking. However, there was something different about Neon White, something that made me want to keep trying its levels again and again to just try and eke out a better time.

Part of it is the fact that getting better times and finding secrets unlocks more character interactions and cutscenes, which is nice, because I really like the game’s aesthetic and voice cast.

More than that, though, Neon White’s controls and gameplay are so laser precise, so perfectly sequenced, that it almost feels like a personal slight when I can’t completely nail a level to a tee. It’s another one of those Ultra Instinct flow state situations.

Every single attempt at a particular level teaches you, every failure is a small step forward. The sequence becomes clearer, the timing of obstacles and enemy attacks slowly being seared into your memory. It’s mechanical perfection in motion, and it feels immensely satisfying when you finally get it just right.

2 Slay The Spire

There’s Always A Better Deck

I had a bad experience with trading cards in middle school that prompted me to angrily swear off of them forever. Even so, the spirit of card slinging still slumbers within my heart, occasionally reawakening for games like Slay the Spire and forcing me back down the rabbit hole of deck optimization.

I think what I enjoy about Slay the Spire more than playing an actual card game is that, while you get a selection of cards to start with, you’re always continuously building and iterating upon your deck over the course of a run.

Instead of having to plan out a single deck for every eventuality, you can change mid-lane, course correct if it looks like your build isn’t really carrying you.

Of course, even with that extra slack, there are always better builds out there. As with any roguelike, it’s all about slow, iterative progress, gradually throwing builds at the wall and seeing what sticks. Maybe I could just stop playing, but then my old card game demons would win. And we can’t have that.

1 Dredge

Keep Fishing, Even If It Kills You

They say the knowledge and satisfaction of a job well done is sufficient impetus to do said job. There’s definitely some truth to that, but perhaps a long and arduous job like sea fishing would feel a little more rewarding if every time you came home, it was with the unspoken assumption that you successfully avoided either going insane or being devoured by a sea monster.

Dredge is the kind of game that slowly turns you into a rough approximation of that superstitious old fisherman you see in nautical horror movies. You know, the guy who never goes out after dark out of fear of the dark shapes moving beneath the waves, who warns teenagers to do the same before they ignore him.

To survive in Dredge, you need routines, systems, rules; you need to get into a groove, know where to go to find the best fish, how long to stick around, and how and when to quickly make yourself scarce.

Dredge’s moment-to-moment fishing is generally pretty quiet, almost relaxing, but it comes with a near-constant threat of something horrible befalling you. It’s that distinctive feeling of “I probably shouldn’t be doing this” that makes it so addictive.

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