Xbox Game Pass has officially dropped its full lineup for the first half of September 2026, and while it’s not the blockbuster wave that August delivered, there’s still plenty to dig into — including a long-awaited Call of Duty addition and a couple of genuinely surprising new entries. Here’s everything confirmed, what’s already playable, what’s heading out the door on September 15, and a look ahead at what October has in store.
Every Xbox Game Pass Game Confirmed for September 2026 (Wave 1)
Microsoft officially unveiled its September Wave 1 lineup on September 1, covering titles from September 1 through 15. Here’s the full confirmed list with release dates and tier availability:
- Shelldiver — September 1 | Ultimate, Premium, PC
- Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault — September 2 | Ultimate, PC
- Speedrunners 2: King of Speed — September 3 | Ultimate, PC
- Dice a Million — September 4 | Premium, Ultimate, PC
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War — September 8 | Premium, Ultimate, PC
- The Royal Writ — September 10 | Premium, Ultimate, PC
- Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage — September 10 | Premium, Ultimate, PC
- RuneScape: Dragonwilds — September 15 | Premium, Ultimate, PC
Worth noting: Moonlighter 2 dropped quietly on September 2 alongside its global release but wasn’t included in Xbox’s official Wave 1 announcement for some reason, even though it’s confirmed for Game Pass on the same day. It’s still coming — Microsoft just forgot to mention it in the roundup.
The second half of September also has two more confirmed additions:
- Dune: Awakening — September 22 | Ultimate, PC
- Well Dweller — September 22 | Ultimate, PC
- Minecraft Dungeons 2 — September 29 | Ultimate, PC
The Highlights Worth Talking About
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War — September 8
This one continues Microsoft’s methodical rollout of Call of Duty’s back catalog onto Game Pass following its Activision acquisition. Black Ops Cold War, set during the early 1980s Cold War confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, includes its full globe-spanning single-player campaign alongside multiplayer. Rumors of it coming to Game Pass had been circulating since July, so the official confirmation isn’t a huge surprise — but having a full modern CoD title hit the subscription is always a solid addition.
It’s worth understanding the context here. Earlier in 2026, Xbox dropped the price of Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 down to $22.99 per month — the first major decision from new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma after Phil Spencer’s retirement in February. The catch: new Call of Duty games will no longer drop on Game Pass day one, arriving instead about a year after release. Black Ops Cold War is an older title, so it slots in fine under this new model, but it signals how the CoD-on-Game Pass pipeline will work going forward.
Speedrunners 2: King of Speed — September 3 (Day One)
The sequel to the competitive 2D platforming racer that Microsoft used to give away through the now-discontinued Games with Gold program. Speedrunners 2 supports online races with up to 8 players, which is double the original’s player count. It’s arriving as a day-one Game Pass title, which is one of the few genuinely Ultimate-exclusive additions this wave — Kotaku noted that it’s actually the only September Wave 1 title not also available on the cheaper Premium tier, which says something about Ultimate’s relative value proposition right now.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage — September 10
This one was confirmed back in August as a surprise addition and is now officially locked in. The revamped version of Sega’s legendary 3D fighting game hits Game Pass mid-month, and for fighting game fans who haven’t kept up with the Virtua Fighter series, this is a genuinely quality title to jump back into through the subscription.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds — September 15
The co-op survival adventure set in the RuneScape universe, putting players into Ashenfall after dragons awaken. This is arguably the headliner of the second part of Wave 1 and gives Game Pass subscribers who enjoy survival/crafting games a meaty new option right as the month wraps up.
The Bonus Content Worth Knowing About
Beyond the standard game additions, September has a few extras attached:
- NHL 27 Free 10-Hour Trial: Available September 4 via Game Pass Ultimate, with the option to carry over progress into the full game if you decide to buy it.
- TCG Card Shop Simulator 1.0 Launch: The game graduates from Game Preview on September 15 and gets its full 1.0 release through Game Pass.
- Aniimo Monthly Reward Pack: Starting September 16, subscribers across all four Game Pass tiers receive an exclusive monthly reward pack in the anticipated creature-collecting game. Yes, this is essentially the Pokémon-adjacent game that fans have been keeping their eye on, and getting in on the ground floor with subscriber perks is a nice bonus.
Games Leaving Game Pass on September 15
The additions are one thing, but the departures this month are arguably the bigger story. On September 15, a significant wave of quality titles exits the service, including:
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Dead Cells
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
- Frostpunk 2
- Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition
- Superliminal
- Mullet MadJack
- Train Sim World 5
Cyberpunk 2077 leaving is the headline loss. It was only added to Game Pass back in March 2026, making its six-month stay relatively brief. This is also the second major CD Projekt Red game to leave Game Pass within a month — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition departed August 31. Both going out at the same time, right before a wave of high-profile RPG releases, is a stinging combination for subscribers who were hoping to finally catch up on either title through the subscription. If you haven’t finished Cyberpunk 2077 yet, you have until September 15.
NBA 2K26 is also departing, having been confirmed for removal on September 6 — ahead of the main batch.
Xbox Game Pass October 2026 Preview — What’s Confirmed So Far
October is where things get genuinely exciting. Here’s the confirmed list so far:
- Gears of War: E-Day — October 6 | Day One | Ultimate, PC
- Echo Weaver — October 8
- Forever Ago — October 8
- Deep Dish Dungeon — October 13
- Valor Mortis — October 13
- Beyond These Stars — October 15
- The Seance of Blake Manor — October 27
- Terrible Lizards — October 29
Gears of War: E-Day — The October Anchor
This is the big one. Gears of War: E-Day is joining Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day-one title on October 6 — confirmed by both developer The Coalition and Xbox themselves. Developed by The Coalition, E-Day is set 14 years before the original Gears of War, following a younger Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago through the horror of Emergence Day — the moment the Locust Horde first erupted from underground to launch their assault on humanity.
The campaign supports two-player split-screen co-op on console or up to four-player online co-op, and the game brings a reimagined Horde Siege mode alongside refined Versus PvP. Premium Edition players can start five days early on October 1. This is exactly the kind of first-party blockbuster day-one drop that justifies a Game Pass subscription, and after years without a mainline Gears release, the appetite for it is real. Given the rough server situation Xbox has been dealing with lately, hopefully the infrastructure is stable for what’s going to be a high-demand launch.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse — The Leaked Bonus
Not officially confirmed yet, but a now-deleted Instagram reel on the official Xbox Game Pass account showed footage from Gamescom 2026 that included Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse alongside other Game Pass titles. The reel was removed quickly, which has only fueled speculation that it went live before Xbox was ready to announce it.
Belmont’s Curse is developed by the Dead Cells team at Motion Twin and published by Konami, following Rose Belmont — daughter of Trevor Belmont from Castlevania III — as she fights to save Paris from a new threat following Dracula’s defeat. Iconic bosses like Medusa, Death, and Carmilla return, and defeating them grants Rose new abilities via their Arcana sealed within tarot cards. If the leak is accurate, it would arrive as a day-one Game Pass title on October 15, joining E-Day as a genuinely strong one-two punch for the month.
The Bigger Picture for Game Pass in 2026
September’s lineup reads as a solid but not spectacular month, especially with the Cyberpunk 2077 departure overshadowing some of the additions. The price cut from $29.99 to $22.99 for Ultimate earlier this year was a necessary correction after a significant backlash-driven subscriber exodus following the October 2025 hike — but the trade-off (losing day-one CoD access) is still being felt in how the library gets replenished.
October, though, looks like the month where Game Pass reasserts itself. Gears of War: E-Day day one, a possible Castlevania surprise, and a full calendar of smaller titles heading into the holiday stretch all point toward Q4 being the real moment to watch. With GTA 6 launching November 19 and the broader games market heating up for the year-end rush, Game Pass needs that October momentum to carry subscribers through.
For now, if you’re a subscriber: play Cyberpunk 2077 before September 15, check out Speedrunners 2 and Virtua Fighter 5 when they drop, and clear your calendar for October 6.
