Game Pass May 2025 – Review

It's a case of quality over quantity this month, with DOOM leading the charge and a few heavy hitters from third parties rounding out the list.

To see last month’s review click here. Following possibly the best ever month for Game Pass was always going to be a tough ask, with April containing two big first party releases (South of Midnight and Oblivion), along with a surprise indie hit people have been clamouring to play (Clair Obscur), but it’s fair to say Microsoft have had a really good go.

---

May 2025 – The Additions

Last month we saw 15 games added to the service, this month we got just 8. These sort of inconsistencies can be harmful for a subscription service, but it has to be said that the 8 games this month are a treat. Headed by none other than DOOM: The Dark Ages, but also featuring the hugely acclaimed Metaphor: ReFantazio, as well as Warhammer: Vermintide 2, The Division 2, and indie darlings DREDGE and Monster Train 2.

I personally can’t wait to try out the console version of Anno 1800, while I know there’s a special place in hell for…I mean a dedicated community around games like Police Simulator: Patrol Officers.

In all, that’s a pretty good selection, considering DOOM alone would be enough to get most people to sign up for another month.

Critical Reception

As alluded to above, there are some high quality games on show this month. Best of all is Metaphor: ReFantazio, with its stellar 94 Metascore, followed a short distance behind by the highly addictive Monster Train (88). DOOM: The Dark Age‘s 85 metascore is up there with the best Xbox first party have produced in the last decade (based on review scores at least), while The Division 2 (82) and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (82) are also both clearly strong additions to Game Pass.

In fact, 7 of the 8 games added are in the 80s this month, which makes it a real shame that Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (48) scores so low, as it will knock the average down a touch.

From a user reviews point of view, DREDGE (4.7) leads the way, closely followed by Metaphor: ReFantazio (4.5), and with Police Simulator (3.3) again bringing up the rear.

Recency

Just the two new releases this month, with DOOM: The Dark Ages and Monster Train 2 both day one releases. Metaphor is of course still less than a year old, and it’s quite a coup for Xbox to have got that in Game Pass after the marketing deal that they had in place for it as well. Otherwise, it’s quite an elderly bunch this time round.

---

May 2025 – The Leavers

With 18 games leaving last month, to see only 6 going this time around is definitely good news. And, objectively, there are few in this list that will make people too concerned, though it is worth stating that 5 out of the 6 are 80+ Metacritic titles.

Best rated amongst those leaving are jointly Humanity and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (both 86), with Chants of Sennar coming in just behind (85). Most of them are 2023 releases, with the exception of Brothers (2018) and Humanity (new to Xbox in 2024).

---

Additions vs Leavers

It’s pretty even this month, with more games (+2) yet a slightly lower quality in terms of critical reviews compared to those leaving the service. I think given the improved recency and value of the newer games you’d have to say it’s a pretty fair trade, with DOOM alone more than worth the price of entry.

---

Vs. May 2024

May was a pretty quiet month in 2024, propped up by Hellblade II: Senua’s Sacrifice, a game I was initially very impressed with, but which I grew to be disappointed in as a result of its linearity and short story (much like most critics). With Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition in the list, there were also quite a few games that scored in the 80s on Metacritic, but given that’s a 10 year old game now, it wasn’t exactly worth writing home about.

The leavers in May 2024 were much like the additions, not much particularly noteworthy (Hellblade II notwithstanding on the additions side), with Chicory: A Colorful Tale, NORCO and Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 the higest rated.

In all, May 2024 was a mixed bags, with older games joining the service than leaving, with the leavers also boasting much better Metascore. But ultimately, an 80 average for a month’s new games is still very good going, and the user ratings were considerably better for those games joining, too.

---

Conclusions

April 2025 was always going to be a tough act to follow, but Microsoft has returned to the third party stable to supplement its excellent first party showing from DOOM: The Dark Ages. The likes of Metaphor, Dredge and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 make for an excellent month all round, with few big games leaving either.

A solid month that could only have been improved by an increase in quantity of titles, while maintaining the strong quality bar set here.

---

Some notes on this data: We are only interested in the Game Pass Ultimate tier for this. We may expand to look at other tiers in the future. For the purposes of this exercise, where the console or PC version of a game is already on Game Pass and the other version also joins, we do not count it as an additional game coming to the service. In the same way, if only one version leaves, we don’t count it as a departure. Prices and review scores listed is the data as of the date listed below, meaning the prices & scores of games from the year previously (when used in point of comparison in this article), are likely to be cheaper than they would have been when they actually joined Game Pass and may have different average scores (especially user scores).

For Metacritic scores, we generally take the score from the platform with the most reviews, unless there is a reason not to (e.g. instead of taking Goldeneye 64’s 96 Metacritic score for the recent Xbox re-release, we opt to not give it a score as there are not enough reviews of that version). Data captured June 10th 2025.