
Over the past few years, we've started to hear more and more that Xbox owners are buying fewer games and sticking to the offerings on Xbox Game Pass instead — and to be honest, we tend to do the same thing here at Pure Xbox HQ!
That said, we've seen a lot of Xbox sales throughout 2022, including the current Xbox Countdown Sale which has reduced almost 1000 games, while the likes of Elden Ring and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 have sold extremely well, so we're willing to bet most Xbox owners have bought at least bought one or two games this year.
And then there's the question about physical and digital. Sales of boxed Xbox games are clearly dwindling these days, with a game like High On Life choosing to skip a physical version entirely, even despite its immense popularity.
So, as we approach the end of the year, we're interested to know how many Xbox games you've bought in 2022, as well as what percentage of those games were physical purchases rather than digital. This should be interesting!
How many Xbox games have you actually bought in 2022? Tell us down in the poll and comments below.
Comments 83
My original plan was just to use my xbox just for gamepass but as the year went on I actually bought a few games from cd keys as they were cheap. I bought cyberpunk 2077, witcher 3, chernobylite, assassins creed valhalla, dark pictures little hope, dying light 2, fifa 23 and alan wake remastered.
In two years I’ve not bought a single game for Xbox. It’s the GamePass machine.
got the S solely for GP.
Mostly i buy physical for resale.
but probably will pick bits up in sales
2 for me. CoD & NHL 22.
Key point from me though is the 2 games above are really the only 2 I ever bought. Now I have Game Pass, I’ve played 61 over the year.
I wouldn’t have considered myself a ‘gamer’ prior to Game Pass. Now I wear it as a badge of honour. I’ve found I love the smaller indie type games, games I would never have considered or even known about without Game Pass.
I have brought 3 games on Xbox this year but paid nothing as used rewards points. I have also pre ordered Hogwarts deluxe with rewards points.
I have both Game Pass and PS+P and they offer loads. I only buy 1-2 games a year on PS also. No need to spend loads of money on gaming, wouldn't be cheap if you're paying £70 a game.
All digital on Xbox and physical only on PS5 when I get anything.
0, if it's not on GP I'll get it elsewhere or wait.
Think it's around 15 to 20 if I include the reward point games. Haven't really counted them. Since I have the S I bought 0 physical. I am buying less and less games. Recently I started to only buy games I will play in the coming month since my backlog already is huge and I still have a lot of games to play on gamepass and ps plus
A big fat zero. The ps5 would be my main console with the series x used for gamepass only and even then I've been thinking of cancelling it. Xbox really need to pick up their game quick..
52 games so far. (Went through my email receipt history to get a full count.)
Every single one digitally.
My total digital library consist of 493 games. I do have a few physical Xbox games from before I embraced my Xbox to be a digital first device, or games I bought second hand because they no longer longer licenses (like Platinums Transformers and that Deadpool game, forget who made it.)
In contrast:
9 PS5 games. All physical.
71 Switch Games. All physical. Some might be late arrivals of 2021 purchases from Limited Run (I use my GameEye history to track my physical games.)
Around 30-40 games would be my guess.
All digital. Though it’s worth noting that I buy all my multiplats on Xbox. My PS5 and Switch are only for exclusives.
I need to stop buying games badly and play the ones I have ,the problem is I forget what I do and don't own ,I'm at the stage now where I see a game on a website and think that looks good I'd like to play that ...then find out I already own it and have done for a while
And don't get me started on dlc ,I buy too much and don't get around to play em ,I just forget I own it
Edit : library says I own 685 and according to my friend last year I had hit 500 so deffo purchased over 100 this year
I haven't found anything worth buying on xbox this year.
This is partially because I have a backlog of games so in order to buy something it has to be better than the games waiting on my backlog.
Most of the games I have played this year have been on either PS5 or PC.
@Tharsman Whoa. Out of curiosity, how many of the 132 games you bought this year did you play in a significant fashion?
@evan23 I won’t lie, a lot of them are going into the backlog, and I double dip A LOT with Switch/XBox games. Plus that’s just games I bought, not counting games I played through Game Pass.
Almost every singe game was on a deep discount, though. Well, except some of the Switch games, a non insignificant chunk of that was Limited Run Games and those are not games one gets “on sale”.
I got my first Xbox ever this April, and I've bought roughly 25 games, maybe 30, since then, the majority of which is physical.
I haven't played them all yet, of course, but I'm having a great time with my Series X!
@Martsmall if you want the actual count (and they are digital) think you can go to the web store and see a full list and count from there.
As for keeping track of what you do own already, I suggest the GameEye app. It has saved me from accidentally buying games twice several times. Just make sure to add games to the library as you buy them. I only track physical games on it but it can also track digital ones.
Edit:
10, i forgot TLOU2 last week.
MXGP19
Monster Energy Supercross 1 - 2 - 3
Rustler, today
Asterix and obelix XXL
Tomb Raider trilogy
Across physical and digital easily 100+.
@Tharsman thank you I'll check out the gameeye app , at the moment I have to go through my owned games library , the Xbox store is dodgy sometimes it doesnt say I own when I do ,eg Lego star wars I got the deluxe but the normal /deluxe pages on the store says I don't own it ...weird
0 games on Xbox. It’s a Gamepass machine for me currently. The exclusives tend to be on Gamepass as well, so what’s the point in buying? I buy a lot of games on Switch and PS5 though. I’ve probably purchased around 30-40 titles this year.
my must haves, sales, an gamepass has bloated my backlog to levels i'd rather not want to think about. thats across more than just xbox.
@UltimateOtaku91 That’s what I miss the most on PS5, to buy cd keys from other sources than PSN store. I rarely buy digital games on PS5 due to the outrageous prices we have here.
Bought a couple cd keys for Xbox this year.
@Martsmall ah yea the store can be annoying mixing up editions, like, if you own a deluxe version it won’t tell you you also own the standard edition. They need to learn from Steam on that front.
Probably only bought 3-5 games this year. Mostly used game pass.
@Nalverus tell me about it
._. And next year looks horrid as well
A resolution I made in 2021, only buy games you will finish on NS/PS/Xbox (physical if available). 5-6 per platform but finished and discovered a lot more on GP
I now have both game pass and ps plus premium. I have more games than time. I don't see myself buying any Game for a while
Series X is my first ever Xbox, bought it for Game Pass really. Bought Elden Ring for Xbox as at the time my PS5 memory was chocker, bought a 2tb internal extension since then so not bought owt else on Xbox since.
I have paid for 0 games, but "bought" 2 or 3 with points.
@Kaloudz It’s easy you exchange your points for Xbox gift cards 4800pts =5 $ so you put a game you want on wishlist wait for a sale then redeem your points for gift cards then buy your game with it.
Haven’t bought anything since Forza 7. Used to buy a few every month. Game Pass changed my buying habits on Xbox completely.
I only buy games these days that are in a sale or digital only and if both are not on Game Pass. It has also definitely changed my buying habits even further since I’ve been using Boomerang Rentals, so GP actually acts as my second rental service, PS Plus Extra will be my third tomorrow!
You’ve got to wonder though, if so many people subscribe to the likes of Game Pass and PS Plus thus them buying even less games then what does that mean for the future if a lot less people are buying them because of these subscription services? Sales are going to go right down so less money to fund a sequel or new IPs.
I havent buy even one game thanks to Xcloud, i began using it this year and is just awesome, if they give me the ability of buy games would be great too
I bought over 16 that I can think of off the top of my head but I do have 4 kids and of course my fiance. Some were multiple copies across 6 boxes(Xbox one s, two Xbox one x's, two series s, one series x. 4 of those in my home. The series and one x. I did get one physical game for my fiance in just dance 22 which stays in the one x.
66% at 0% physical right now goddamn.
seems i may have made a mistake buying my series x to go alone with my ps5,
if they don't plan to release any of the xbox exclusives as physical games it will have been a waste of cash indeed.
Haven't bought any games on my Series S. It was always just going to be a GP machine, so no surprise there.
17 games this year, 4 physical, rest digital
I only bought 1 game this year I think. 3 games last year. All physical. It's just that there's not enough games coming out that I'm interested in. I actually bought valheim on PC today after playing it on gamepass. But I bought the steam version.
I'll have to check before voting but... A LOT.
I think 40+ and I only got my Series S on what? June? I'm not sure.
I'll check when I have the time and vote/comment again.
Since August when my Series S arrived,
44 games. All digital of course since it's a Series S. Even with a X it would be all digital, that's the only way I buy games.
xbox 16, Switch 10, Steam 2, PS 1 and Ubisoft 1. usually buy a lot more but been good this year. all digital.
Around 22 games, a good amount of DLC, & 2 or 3 Battle Passes. But I've also been almost exclusively playing on my Switch since December 2017, and it wasn't until about August of this year I came back to it and eventually buying a Series X, so I've been a bit behind.
Only game Ive brought this year is Gow ragnarok.. Best I've played this year also
Two. Fuser and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland.
I have gamepass ultimate but still bought an insane amount of games. Most of them are physical.
Bought 73 games, 100% physical.
I prefer having physical. If it doesn't release in physical form, I probably won't get around to playing it
I bought Cursed to Golf with rewards points. I have more points to spend, so will but at least one more before the end of the year. I mostly use game pass, and xbox has been my most played console. I think I bought 2 on PS, Inscryption and Tiny Tina's. Live a Live on Switch, as well as Rogue Book and I am sure a few other indies I am forgetting
In 2022 I only bought Tunic and even thennits Xbox play anywhere so I play mostly on PC. Any other major game went to the PS5. Even on Switch I only bought the new Kirby. Pretty slow year for new games.
I play a ton of games on game pass, but I also play a lot of hardcore/niche games that mostly dont make it to the service. That said Solasta surprise announcement this year, hey it's out right now and it's on game pass, well that made my day.
@Kaloudz Don’t ever waste your points on sweepstakes. I would suggest hoarding them and cashing in for 3 month game pass ultimate or 91,000 for $100 gift card.
13 games this year. Mostly played game pass games this year. And couple of games for Switch and Steam. About 20 in total.
I bought close to 30 games between my Series X and Switch this year. Just 2 of the 12 I got on the X were physical. Most of the Switch games were physical.
Last game I bought was Aliens Fireteam which was broken for weeks after release. M$ refused (illegally) to refund, not only that but I couldn't get in touch with anyone being a completely automated customer service. The refund terms and conditions were deliberately opaque (also of dubious legality).
So I vowed never to purchase a game from them again. Kinda helps nearly all the releases in 2022 have been crap.
Was a game pass machine until I cancelled the subscription. Not enough worth playing left on there. Now I have a very expensive paper weight under the tv! Currently on a year of PS Premium and won't subscribe to that again either. Think I'll be going back to only buying games on deep sale. Much better value to me.
I bought about 20 digital titles and collected around 10 physical. I'd get more physical if they sold them & in some cases I import to get the physical version like for the Klonoa Phantasy series where they printed in Spain but digital elsewhere. I'm typically buying Japanese releases physical to show support: Persona 5, Resident Evil 2&3 and Village, Klonoa and others. Would've got Tales of Arise physical but saw it digital for $23 only to see it at a GameStop for $19.99. I even bought MCC physical and own a Halo Infinite Steelbook copy. Wish MSFT supported more physical releases since some of us have the disc drive, even if it's only a small batch print. I'd get High on Life for example and a bunch of smaller indie titles in a heartbeat!
@DarksunRyda I used to only do digital for Switch until I got a Switch Lite and it made me verify my games online every week. Took it on a trip and forgot to do that so I could only play physical cartridges. So now my physical collection is MUCH bigger but with Xbox taking up more time, my purchases for Nintendo games is dropping (especially since I have a big physical backlog on the system). With Xbox I can play whenever and wherever I want with GPU, I really wish Nintendo got rid of the verification and let us log two consoles to our accounts.
@Kilamanjaro I didn't know there was a weekly verification, I've never heard of it. That is insanity. The vast majority of my Switch games are physical...well so are my Xbox games but I am acquiring more and more digital games on Xbox because of the forward compatibility I know what I buy will be on the next console and I don't have to change discs when I want to play a different game I'm getting old and lazy. I think my time with each console is pretty close. I love Nintendo IPs and Gamepass is the best thing in gaming now. I like being able to play anywhere as well. My Nintendo handhelds always got tons of use as well as my Switch. I bring my Surface tablet with me to play Xbox games.
@Kilamanjaro
Check-out my profile it has my Gamertag and Switch friend code there if you ever want to game together. I know you're several hours ahead of me but I play a lot.
@MaccaMUFC this is the reason Sony don’t put AAA exclusives on PS+ day 1.
@DarksunRyda yeah the digital verification is garbage, even Doug Bowser at Nintendo has stated that they won't change that verification system with secondary consoles. Buying digital with Microsoft is easy, love the compatibility to yout point, I have trust it'll work in the future whereas Nintendo is closing their old eShops every generation (upcoming 3DS and Wii U). Shame because I've easily dropped over 2000 hours on my Switch, still play it regularly but prefer physical now. I have the Kishi for my phone and Gamepass which is only throttled by my internet connection hehe
I said 16-20 but it may be above 20 in the end. Almost all of them physical as I like to collect (at least 5 are of games I adored playing on GP and got the physical copy at a good price). Also I believe Crisis Core is the only new game released, with elden ring as a close call but on the used market after a couple of months
I'm amazed how many of you are showing me up. I thought I bought a lot of games but this was a lighter year than normal and I've already bought a large library. Console says over 700 games. I don't even remember buying them all, and I'll probably never play half of them! All digital, I bought 11-15 this year.
Soul hackers 2, star ocean, mass effect trilogy remaster, elden ring, no more heroes 3, Diofield Chronicle, stranger of paradise ff, Sonic frontiers, p5r, TMNT cowabunga, Judgement, nier replicant.
Lol only one non Japanese game in that list!
On PS5 it was stray, hfw, gt7, kena. Only one Japanese game.
Switch... Kirby, rune factory. Arceus, xc3. ai som, a few other smaller games I can't remember. I think I bought trails of cold steel 4 on switch after realizing I'm never going to play the PS4 version and want it portable if I ever finish 3.
I thought I over bought, but you guys really outdid me!
@Martsmall LOL I know that feeling so well! It saves a lot of money. I go shopping, go to buy it and find out I already did years ago!
@Kilamanjaro FWIW, switch, Xbox, and PS all work pretty much exactly the same digitally. If you play on a secondary machine it phones home to verify. Honestly I didn't even know there was a weekly offline check, I thought it had to be real time. If it's online it checks if it can verify every time, and if the net is down, it just blocks you. Not sure how else they could do it really
Don't know the exact number but it was in the 20-30 range, mostly backwards compatible titles I skipped over during the 360 gen but due to some great sales and the fact some of them get One X and Series X enhancements I decided to take advantage of that.
I split the major AAA purchases between XSX and PS5. I always go for disc copies of those if possible and got the good majority of them on day one or within the first week of release.
Having missed out on a generation of Xbox (no Xbone), I ended up buying a lot of games I missed that happened to be on sale. Forza 5 was also a factor.
@NEStalgia I'm not on my own !!!!! I buy ...will play soon , forget about it then see it elsewhere and find out I own it ....its the circle of life lol
Merry Christmas matey
Bought Saints Row, Tiny Tiny and Gotham Knights. Otherwise GP and Nintendo Switch does enough for me.
I really don't like the gamepass idea. I always have to own the game
Some crazy comments here. Lots of money wasted. Before you purchase anything really need to ask yourself have I really got the time to play that 🤔
@NEStalgia that's true if you're playing on one and swap to another while gaming live. The Xbox and PS aren't portable consoles and will almost always have internet connection if they're at home. But if I'm signed into my Xbox at home without internet, I can play on any profile and it'll save my games..whereas with the Switch, only the primary account can play digitally and secondary accounts need to be verified online that they can play the purchased game.
And when you have internet, then cloud saves become an issue for the secondary accounts (even with the Family plan I ran into issues having my partner switch between some digita game saves on both consoles). Maybe it's a bit hard for me to explain it in full detail but from my experience, playing across consoles and save files for digital games, Xbox performs a lot better than the Switch. So my partner can olay whatever game she wants & access + saves transfer through very easily. Especially if you own two Xboxes.
You can test what I'm talking about my trying to play digital titles with a second account on any other Switch you have & also with the primary account. It'll become pretty frustrating unless you can pop in a physical cart to bypass the checks, here's the closest I can get to the setup I'm talking about: https://kotaku.com/if-you-have-two-switches-here-s-how-to-share-download-1838438317
Purchased dying light 2 in the sale.
Was hoping it might be added to game pass for Christmas.
Now watch it will appear in January 2023 😂
Normally I'd be able to buy a bunch of games on top of gamepass, keeping my Switch, Xbox, PC, and Quest nicely topped off.
This year, for obvious reasons, I struggled to buy any games. It made more sense to pick up DLC.
Just purchased my first game in a year and a half. MSGV DE was $6. Other than that I only gamepass game now.
I bought Elden Ring and recently just purchased Sonic Frontiers on sale, that was it.
Truth be told, I did buy a few more games on Playstation: Horizon Forbidden West, Last of Us Remaster and God of War Ragnarok
Hi there fellow gamers,
This year I actualy bought quite a few games for my Series X.
There were some really good sales on Black Friday and I got a few games that I wanted for some time
Mostly were actualy digital like The Halo games and Some were physical like Assassin´s Creed Valhala and Samurai Shodown.
Even though it is a Gamepass machine, I still prefer to own my games nonetheless.
Cheers, stay safe and warm folks and happy gaming to us all
@Kaloudz turn off the auto redeem as the voucher you receive is time limited (which is a £5 voucher for 5500 points in the UK) and sit on points until you can grab a £25 voucher (which is 29250 points) yes you miss a couple of quids worth of vouchers but you can then get a proper game!
So far Ive managed to snag Rogue Legacy 2, Sonic Origins, The Stanley Parable, a couple of retro gaming bundles, Sleeping Dogs and the Solitaire something or other which looked interesting
Ive Bought 12 games this year. Got 2 games for Christmas physical. The rest are digital.
@Kilamanjaro Interesting. In my own experience all 3 consoles validate games when logged into a second console, and all 3 deny play on those secondary consoles when Internet is down. That said I never put any of them into an offline specific mode.
I happen to use "game sharing" on all 3 so the second player at home has "my" primary consoles for all 3 and I have theirs, allowing both players to play any game from my digital library. Plus I have a series S I use for phone streaming as a third console, am old PS4 for the same, and 2 switches for myself too... So I do a ton of accessing from second consoles, and when Internet (or the Xbl/nso/PSN servers are down) it always prevents me from playing on the second consoles. Second account on the same console though, I'm not as sure about that one the one week check in you mentioned would mean I wouldn't have seen that. Reminds me of x1 launch
I only got back into "modern" gaming at the end of 2021, after only having a Wii since 2010. I've bought more games this year then I probably will ever but again. But two of those games were Sonic related which never seem to come to GP and one was A Lego one, which seems unlikely to come to GP. I love GP though, so many great indie games, Bute also some big titles too. However, I find theAAA titles so complex, that I end up going back to puzzlers, Sonic and Lego, because the one thing I've learned this year is that gaming should be FUN!
Only game I wanted was Sniper Elite 5, so I got Gold and upgraded it to gamepass for less than the cost of the game itself. Got a couple of games planned for 2023 though...Hogwarts and Assassins Creed
Thanks to MSrewards I probably have bought closer to 20 games this year. Not paid a penny in real money. Bioshock collection, Ezio collection, Song pop, Star War KOTOR2, Mk11 UE, Injustice 2 LE, Borderlands 3 UE, Trials Rising GE, PC simulator, Splinter cell Blacklist, GTA4, Bully, Red dead 1, Dead island, Sleeping dogs, Dead rising 2 & Off the record, Mega drive classics, bunch of DLC, Rock band tracks and still have over 300k worth of points left
I checked my purchase history and it was about 22 games. Mostly older digital games on sale (360/XB1/Series X). Two physical games on sale. The high number was a little surprising. I have Game Pass and also buy from PC stores.
I don't buy tons of full priced games like the old days.
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