The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Developer GSC Game World brought the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series back into the limelight with the recently released Heart of Chornobyl, which undoubtedly represents the peak of the series. It takes what worked in prior entries, and creates something that’s bigger and better in almost every way. It blends a modern gameplay framework with the brutal survival mechanics of past entries, and that culminates in an experience that’s sure to stay with you long after the credits roll.

“Rust going strength to strength!” said McFarlane, celebrating the game’s latest milestone. “We just beat our all-time CCU, beating Covid and all other significant events.”

McFarlane goes on to celebrate the accomplishment by thanking the game’s players for their support.

“For the past several months, we’ve been hitting new monthly records, this was a huge one we were unsure if we’d ever beat, not unless there was another global pandemic,” said McFarlane. “Huge thanks to everyone supporting Rust. The team have worked tirelessly for the past 11 years on Rust. 2026 will be no different, lots of great things coming.”

Shortly after McFarlane’s post, SteamDB revealed that the game had reached even further heights, garnering 262,284 peak concurrent players. This is the first time the game has seen such player numers since its original early access release.

McFarlane has revealed some more details about Rust throughout 2024, including the fact that the game had more than 5.5 million unique players, with over 40 million hours played across over 325 million game sessions.

Among the updates gotten by Rust over 2024 were the addition of new vehicles like bicycles and motorbikes, a complete revamp of the game’s world map that added new points of interest, the addition of backpacks as new equipment, and much more, including new weapons and quality of life features.

Rust going strength to strength! we just beat our all-time CCU, beating covid and all other significant events.

For the past several months, we’ve been hitting new monthly records, this was a huge one we were unsure if we’d ever beat, not unless there was another global… pic.twitter.com/8U0YD5b8Ez

— Alistair McFarlane (@Alistair_McF) January 2, 2025

Rust has reached 260,000 concurrent players on Steam for the first time https://t.co/Ch1ErdTWUI

— SteamDB (@SteamDB) January 2, 2025

Sons of the Forest

Sons of the Forest is a brutal survival game that tasks players to hold their backs against cannibalistic primals with only a limited few resources to spare. It presents its brutal world with gorgeous graphics and striking attention to detail, and the gradual process of collecting resources and becoming more powerful is one that will keep you hooked for dozens upon dozens of hours. Add to that the ability to enjoy exploring with friends, and Sons of the Forest becomes a great option for a co-op open-world experience.

Splitgate

Splitgate combines the high-octane first-person shooting of contemporaries like Halo with some ingenious portal mechanics that come together to create a markedly fresh experience. It’s a lot of fun to move around portals while spraying bullets at your opponents, and the map design provides many options for coming up with your own creative strategies. While Splitgate’s player count has dropped by quite a margin in recent times, it remains an enjoyable time nevertheless.

Subnautica: Below Zero (Hardcore Mode)

Like the first game, Subnautica: Below Zero has three game modes. Survival is your usual playthrough where health, food, oxygen, and water must be managed. Items are dropped on death, and given the various monstrosities in 4546B, you will die quite a bit. However, you can respawn and usually get them back.

Hardcore Mode is Survival but with only one life – when you’re dead, that’s it. To add more spice, if your Oxygen levels are low, the PDA doesn’t give a warning, so it’s easy to drown. Jumping in and trying to figure everything out is tough enough, but Hardcore will test your limits and patience.

Double Eleven, the studio behind popular survival title Rust, recently announced on its website that it’s developing “new challenges” for Fallout 76. Double Eleven and Bethesda apparently starting discussing a collaboration in late 2020 and have been working together since then on new content for the game. What the nature of this content will be or exactly how meaty this chunk will be remains to be seen, but Double Eleven does say it’s working on “a host of exciting new content”, so there’s that.

“It’s a privilege to be trusted to work on one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history.” said Double Eleven CEO Lee Hutchinson. “The team we’ve assembled to work on Fallout 76 are so passionate about the series, working with Bethesda is a dream come true.”

Earlier this year, Bethesda briefly detailed a roadmap for Fallout 76’s planned support for 2022- though it seems plans for things much further in the future in place as well. Apparently, its developers have a rough five-year roadmap internally laid out.

The new update, patch 1.31, is live now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and aims to fix certain issues in the game, such as fixing crashes that occur when moving items up the crafting queue and attack helicopters randomly disappearing mid-combat. Problems with crashes that happened when a banned player tries to join a friend on a server have also been addressed, so players have one less thing to worry about.

The patch notes are fairly brief. You can read the full notes over on the game’s official website, or find them in their entirety below.

RUST CONSOLE EDITION PATCH 1.31

Fixes: 

• Fixed a crash when moving items up the crafting queue
• Fixed a crash that could occur when accessing the Locker while offline
• Fixed a crash when banned players try to join a friend on a server
• Fixed Heavy Scientists getting stuck above the Oil Rig helipad after the Chinook drops them off
• Fixed players being able to shoot through trees with 5.56 rifle ammo
• Fixed an issue that could cause the attack helicopter to disappear when in combat
• Fixed respawned trees sometimes getting harvested in one hit
• Texture updates for the Oil Rig monuments

The March update covers plenty of areas the game needs improvements in, such as visual improvements of the older monuments in the game to bring them in line with its current quality and fielity, and also make it consistent with overall the visual tone. The junkyard magnet crane has also been improved, along with fixes being made for the night vision visuals.

The visual experience of driving vehicles have also been updated, along with some updates to world models, fixes, and general QoL changes, such as slower car decay, large furnaces providing warmth and heat, and more.

The changes are pretty diverse, so it is advisable to read the full update on the game’s Steam page. Down below, you can read the changelog for the March update.

RUST MARCH UPDATE

CHANGELOG

• Added support for tag filtering to the server browser
• Added new in game music
• Added 14 new world models
• Updated loading screen
• Improved arm and body visuals on some vehicles
• Improved 3rd person keycard animation
• Can no longer reskin doors that are open
• Can now switch to and from Ice Rifle skin regardless of ammo or attachments
• Added support for infinitely scrolling MIDI knob convar bindings (see MidiConvar.BindKnobRelative convar)
• Restricted how far a player can alt look up when looking down
• IO Entities can now decay (fixes Water Barrel, Water Catcher, Above Ground Pool, Boom box, CCTV, Connected Speaker, Counter, Disco Floor, Sprinkler, Wind Mill, Car Lift, Paddling Pool, SAM turret, Search Light, Smart Alarm, Solar Panel, Sound Lights, Telephone, Water Pump not decaying when placed outside of a base)
• Removed slot 8 input bind
• Renamed slot 7 input bind to “Holster Item”
• When opening the inventory the currently equipped belt item will automatically be selected
• Modular cars take 4x longer to decay
• Increased local player voice volume when recording a cassette
• Junkyard magnet crane is more stable to drive
• Junkyard magnet crane now uses 80% less fuel when not driving around, and 25% less fuel when not carrying anything on its magnet
• Added Always Sprint to the game options. If enabled, sprint key behaviour is inverted. Player sprints by default, and holding the sprint key will return them to walk speed
• Improved lighting in the Supermarket, Oxum’s Gas Station, Bandit Camp and Launch Site
• Large furnace now provides a small amount of heat and comfort
• Added BuildingDark and BuildingVeryDark volumes for map makers
• Polar bear should no longer migrate to warmer climates
• Horses now trigger pressure pads
• Fixed a case where changing weapon while gesturing would lead to incorrect viewmodels (missing attachments)
• Fixed case where changing clothing while inventory was full would sometimes incorrectly delete an item
• Fixed rounding issue when using Pure Ore Teas leading to an ore node giving 1501-1505 resources (now gives 1500)
• Fixed some out of date radio stations
• Fixed phantom footsteps continuously playing
• Fixed incorrect sfx footsteps playing
• Fixed modular cars using no fuel if they had multiple engine modules and one of those modules had no components
• Fixed magnet crane arm movement speed slowing down at low server framerates
• Fixed magnet crane driver not syncing up visually with the crane itself when rotating the cabin
• Fixed magnet crane magnet hurting the driver if it was positioned as close as possible to the cabin
• Fixed magnet crane treads sometimes animating in the wrong direction when turning
• Fixed the snowy edges of ice lakes also being considered ice by modular cars and snowmobiles
• Fixed the Tomaha suspension snapping to the wrong position when active updates stopped
• Fixed a sleeper loot exploit
• Fixed CCTV clipping exploit
• Fixed BBQ looting exploit
• Fixed pickle jar desc typo
• Fixed Excavator puzzle reset bounds exceeding the prevent building volume, causes player to die when logged out
• Fixed missing passthrough name on DLC industrial wall lights
• Fixed oil hunt mission reward only being 50 scrap
• Arctic base snowmobile no longer comes with 20 low grade fuel
• Arctic base snowmobile garage no longer spawns puzzle loot

As such, the console edition of the game has received a new update, which brings new content with it. Patch 1.30, called Offshore Blowout, adds in a new small oil rig along with a large oil rig, allowing players to work together to raid and gain loot, along with it with a new CH47 event. The building blocked zone around the harbor monument has also been expanded , along with fixes for texture issues, bugs, missing shadows, and more.

You can read the full notes over on the game’s official website, or find them in their entirety below.