Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wasn't Just An Enormous Sales Success, It Was Also The Biggest New Third-Party Launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025, Despite Launching Two Days After The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

The highly-acclaimed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 conscionable added yet different accolade to its sanction — arsenic it's present the biggest caller third-party crippled motorboat connected Xbox Game Pass successful 2025.

Microsoft announced the quality contiguous aft examining information from each time 1 Xbox Game Pass motorboat this year, and ranking each third-party crippled by the fig of unsocial users during its archetypal 30 days of availability.

It's a hugely awesome accomplishment for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut crippled from French workplace Sandfall Interactive, for respective antithetic reasons. Firstly, due to the fact that the crippled arrived conscionable 2 days aft Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (which itself besides launched via Game Pass). And secondly, due to the fact that we already cognize that Clair Obscur went connected to merchantability precise good excessively (5 cardinal copies successful 5 months) — thing its motorboat via Game Pass does not look to person dented.

"From being determination to denote our crippled backmost successful Summer 2024, to coming to the workplace for the Developer_Direct video successful January, Xbox helped america get the connection retired determination and scope a batch of players," Sandfall originative manager Guillaume Broche said successful a statement.

Xbox Game Pass fto "a batch of radical effort our crippled erstwhile possibly they mightiness not person before," Broche continued. "The turn-based RPG genre has a batch of fans but sometimes it mightiness enactment radical who similar much real-time enactment games off, but Game Pass lowered that obstruction of entry. They could conscionable effort it and spot however it feels. So a batch of funny players could commencement the game, research Lumière and the aboriginal game, and recognize there's a batch to bask here, adjacent if they weren’t expecting it astatine first."

So, what was Clair Obscur's Xbox Game Pass competition? It's been a agelong year, truthful it's worthy reminding ourselves of everything the turn-based RPG has beaten to go this year's biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass release. (And remember, this is abstracted to Microsoft's ain first-party output, which volition see Avowed and South by Midnight, arsenic good arsenic Bethesda games specified arsenic The Outer Worlds 2, and Activision fare similar Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.)

Other third-party games that arrived time 1 via Microsoft's subscription work notably included the highly-anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, arsenic good arsenic the post-apocalyptic endurance crippled Atomfall. The highly-acclaimed indie puzzle favourite Blue Prince besides arrived this year, arsenic did Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Ball X Pit, and PowerWash Simulator 2.

Congratulations, then, to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — thing we whitethorn good beryllium proceeding a fewer much times this month, considering its record-breaking fig of nominations astatine The Game Awards. Tempted to springiness it a try? It's inactive connected Xbox Game Pass, and we person an array of tips for the important things to cognize earlier going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social