Xbox Game Pass adds and removes games on an ongoing basis, so any catalog listing is only valid on the day it was made. What lasts is the method: where to read the lineup, how to spot a title that will disappear in two weeks, and when you can buy a departing game for less. That discount comes with a condition that’s easy to miss, though: not every tier gets it.
The current lineup is on one page and it has filters
The catalog lives on xbox.com in the Game Pass games section. It’s not a marketing page but a listing you can narrow down, and it’s the filters that turn a messy pile into a usable list. As of 11 September 2026, they offer the following.
| Filter group | What you can select |
|---|---|
| Subscriptions | Ultimate, Premium, Essential, Game Pass for console, PC Game Pass |
| Play on | Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, handheld gaming devices, cloud, Xbox Play Anywhere |
| Collections | all games, most popular, recently added, coming to the subscription, leaving soon, play on day one, publisher picks |
| Genres | action, classics, family, indie, platformers, puzzle, racing, RPG, shooters, simulation, sports, strategy |
| Age rating | the page has this filter |
Two of them decide whether the list is accurate for your situation. The subscription filter, because the library isn’t the same across tiers: Essential has over fifty games, Ultimate over four hundred. The device filter, because a game in the listing doesn’t necessarily mean a game that will run for you: on Xbox One, titles made for Series X|S are only available via streaming, not as a download. How many games each tier has and how else they differ is covered in our overview of what’s in each Game Pass tier. The age rating filter is also just a helper when choosing; you can only enforce it at the system level, through parental controls on Xbox.
“Leaving soon” warns you two weeks ahead
Departing titles have their own “Leaving soon” category among the collections, and Microsoft states plainly that these games leave the library within the next two weeks. So fourteen days is the entire warning window. Microsoft doesn’t say anywhere how far in advance a game’s departure is planned internally, so you can only plan within this horizon.
In practice, that means one thing: a game with a fifty-hour campaign that you’ve started and that shows up in “Leaving soon” won’t get finished before it leaves the subscription. Either you go all in on it, buy it, or let it go. Waiting for it to come back isn’t a plan.
The discount on departing games depends on your tier
For departing titles, Microsoft offers up to 20% off if you buy them, so a game you’ve started doesn’t disappear completely. But here’s the detail worth reading the page closely for: only Ultimate, Game Pass for console and PC Game Pass subscribers get the discount. The Essential and Premium tiers aren’t eligible.
Alongside it runs a second, completely different promotion: Deals with Game Pass, with discounts of up to 50% on selected games in the store. This one, on the other hand, applies to Essential and Premium too. They’re two different things and easy to mix up.
| Promotion | How much | On what | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discount on games from the Game Pass library | up to 20% | selected titles from the library, typically the departing ones | Ultimate, Game Pass for console, PC Game Pass |
| Deals with Game Pass | up to 50% | selected games in the Xbox Store | Ultimate, Premium, Essential |
Promotion details verified on 24 August 2026. Microsoft doesn’t say whether the discount still works a few days after a game leaves the library; it only talks about buying before the title leaves. So assume the decision has to be made before the departure date, not after it. And if you end up buying the game with a gift card or code, there’s a separate guide on how to redeem a code on Xbox.
A routine that takes a few minutes a month
- Open the “Leaving soon” collection once every two weeks. A shorter interval is pointless, and a longer one will skip an entire window.
- Decide right away on a game you’ve started. Estimate how many hours are left until the end and compare that with how many evenings you realistically have.
- Buy while you’re still a subscriber. The discount on a departing game is tied to an active subscription, and only to the three tiers mentioned above.
- Treat the “recently added” collection as a plan, not as news. A new game in the library means a download and space on your drive, so it helps to know about it before you have time for it. If you keep running out of space, the options are compared in our article on how to expand Xbox storage.
- Set the device filter once and leave it on. It saves you the disappointment of a game that only runs on your console via streaming.
The last point has a technical side too. Streaming is included in Essential, Premium and Ultimate, not at all in PC Game Pass, and from November 2026 Microsoft is planning monthly hour caps for it. How to start a stream and what you need for it is described in our guide to Xbox Cloud Gaming and how to get started, and our explanation of how cloud gaming works will help you decide whether streaming suits you at all.
When not to bother with any of this
- You play the same two games over and over. The catalog is just noise then, and you’re paying for the subscription for online play, not for the library. When it’s still worth it is calculated in our article on whether Game Pass is worth it.
- You have Essential or Premium. Without the discount on departing titles, “buy before it leaves” costs the same as a regular purchase, so all that’s left to watch is Deals with Game Pass.
- You want to own the game permanently. A title from the library is on loan for as long as you subscribe. If you want to keep it for good, buy it right away and don’t wait for it to leave the service, and if it doesn’t click, there’s a process for how to refund a game on Xbox.
- You collect games on disc. The subscription catalog doesn’t affect that, and your decision moves elsewhere, to the console without a disc drive. That’s covered in our comparison of Xbox Series X and Series S.
FAQ
On the Game Pass games page on xbox.com. It’s the only listing that changes along with the catalog, so lists on gaming websites go stale within days. You can narrow the listing by tier, device, genre, age rating and collections, one of which is the collection of departing games.
By the u0022Leaving soonu0022 collection in the library filters. Microsoft states that it contains games leaving the library within the next two weeks. It doesn’t publish any longer advance notice, so fourteen days is the most you can plan with. Checking once every two weeks is therefore enough.
Up to 20%, but not on every tier. Microsoft lists it for Ultimate, Game Pass for console and PC Game Pass subscribers. Essential and Premium don’t get this discount. It only applies while your subscription is active, so you need to buy before your tier ends.
A second, separate promotion with discounts of up to 50% on selected games in the Xbox Store. Unlike the discount on departing titles, the Essential and Premium tiers get it too, so it covers Ultimate, Premium and Essential. It’s often confused with the 20% discount on library games, but it’s a different offer with a different range of titles.
No. Library titles are available for the duration of your membership, not permanently. The only way to keep a specific game is to buy it, and on three tiers you can even do so at a discount while the title is in the library. Once purchased, the game is tied to your account and the catalog no longer has anything to do with it.
The filters and both discount promotions change on the Xbox site without notice, so before buying a departing game, check the tier condition directly in the store. More articles on the service are in the Xbox on Gamers Together section, and the PlayStation counterpart is covered in our article on how free games in PS Plus work. Details verified as of 24 August 2026.
Featured image photo: Ian Hughes, CC BY 2.0.