Update (Tue 11th May, 2021 21:30 BST): The Microsoft Rewards 10K Xbox Gamerscore Challenge has returned for May 2021, so we've updated this guide below with a few extra games to help you get some easy achievements!
Original story (Fri 8th Jan, 2021 14:00 GMT): The Microsoft Rewards program kicked off January's Xbox Gamerscore Challenge earlier this week, tasking players with earning up to 10K Gamerscore on Xbox in exchange for the equivalent in Microsoft Rewards points.
To activate the punch card, you'll want to head to the Microsoft Rewards app on console, and look for the card with the 2021 symbol, after which you can start earning Achievements to put towards gift cards and other goodies.
To help you along the way (after all, 10K Gamerscore is not easy to achieve in two weeks!), we've picked out some of the easiest free, Xbox Game Pass or former Games with Gold titles to get Achievements in, along with some handy YouTube walkthroughs.
Donut County (Xbox Game Pass, 1-2 Hours)
The Gardens Between (Xbox Game Pass, 1-2 Hours)
Rec Room (Free, 700GS In 5 Mins)
Korgan (Free, Under 2 Hours)
Fractured Minds (Very Cheap, 30 Mins)
Telltale Games The Walking Dead Michonne (Xbox Game Pass, 3 Hours)
#IDARB (Former Xbox Games With Gold, 1 Hour)
What Remains Of Edith Finch (Xbox Game Pass, 1.5 Hours)
One Leaves (US only, Free, 2 Hours)
NHL 94 Rewind (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, 2 Hours)
DOOM 64 (Xbox Game Pass, 1 Hour)
The Little Acre (Xbox Game Pass, 1 Hour)
Little Nightmares (Former Xbox Games With Gold, 1.5 Hours)
Day Of The Tentacle Remastered (Xbox Game Pass, 2 Hours)
Full Throttle Remastered (Xbox Game Pass, 2 Hours)
Subnautica (Xbox Game Pass, 1 Hour)
Roblox (Free, 400GS In 10 Mins)
Sea of Solitude (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, 2.5 Hours)
Gone Home (Former Xbox Games With Gold, 1.5 Hours)
What other games should we add to this list that have easy Achievements? Tell us in the comments!
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Comments 53
Shouldn't that be What REMAINS of Edith Finch?
@VenomousAlbino Yes it should!
I don't know anything about it in terms of quality but if you're in the UK (or anywhere really) you can get One Leaves by changing the region in the store on a desktop/mobile (& most likely also by changing your console region too)
All the Telltale games were easy platinums on PS4, I believe batman 1+2 were on games with gold but they are about ten hours long if I remember correctly
I cannot for the life of me take a picture in rec room, so I only got about 400 points
@XBontendo Yeah, I'm struggling too. I've had the game crash on me a few times while attempting it.
Are people still bothered about achievements?
Turned off notifications for them ages ago.
I'd also like to point out that nobody should need the incentive of easy/quick gamerscore to play The Gardens Between, What Remains of Edith Finch or Gone Home.
Also also: Old Man's Journey is another fantastic game with a reasonably quick and easy 1000G.
@geordie You can get 10000 points if you get the same amount in achievements achievements, so almost £10 worth of points.. Not bad..
@geordie I only go for the achievements in games I really enjoy and use them as an incentive to play the game after I finish but apart from that no I’m not bothered
One leaves takes about 2 hours (largely for the final 200 points)
@WesEds Same, although a small handful of the games in that list are in my backlog. I dont care about big rewards, spending hours to get a bit of gift cert is not worth my time, I can literally spend that time working on something productive, or playing a game I actually enjoy.
Rather spend a week to earn an achievement in a game i love than an hour to earn an easy 1k.
Random question...if i play on xcloud will the achievements I earn there count towards this 10K punchcard or is it console only?
@geordie normally it's a nice little extra but not something i actively pursue but since there is a punch card to convert up to 10K of new gamerscore into reward points I'm all for it. If you max it out you get $10 so why not. That's 1/23 of an expension card in Canada!!
@XBontendo Thank you! I've updated it.
Question on this. If I get less than the 10000, say I get like 2000 or 3000 or whatever will I still get the points? Think I’ll definitely get trying all the stuff on game pass I want to just for the extra points but not going to bother with games I don’t like for the sake of a few extra points. Very nice idea though.
@BigP Yeah, the points are added as you go, so you can stop whenever you like. It's just that 10k is the maximum.
@XBontendo @FraserG I had that problem with Recroom. Google suggested clicking in both sticks for some reason. Not sure why but a bit of fiddling And it finally worked. God awful UI
@FraserG cheers! Said I wasn’t going to bother with games I don’t like but caved and did the Rec room and robloxs ones as it’s 1100 points for 15 mins work! Not massive on achievements but loving all the game pass stuff, quests etc since I got my series S. Makes them worthwhile now.
@geordie Similarly, only games that I love will I try to 100%. Most games I am just trying to beat them.
I "played" Rec Room for GS last month and didn't have any problems. Anyway, thanks for this list!
@themightyant I just got flustered and quit, enough fun alternatives to get points with
I just play games that I want to play & get achievements that way.
There is no way that I am going to waste my time trying to speed run a bunch of indie games in January just to get to 10k in one month.
Why rewards points? I mean, I’ve never found a use for them. It feels good achieving something but what is the point? Do they translate to something, promo gifts or vouchers or… anything really?
@flawse Yeah, they translate to gift cards for loads of places (including Xbox), sweepstake entries, donations, etc.
I can’t find the challenge in my Rewards app. Is the challenge maybe not for all countries? I live in Sweden.
@flawse I'm about 3k points away from $100, so this challenge is great for me
@XBontendo that sounds great! Haven’t seen any goals… but I maybe I’m looking under the wrong rock.
None of the achievements for One Leaves work for me. Gave up.
@jaysquared2 you may have to uninstall/reinstall a few times. Worth it since the first 800 points only take about 15 minutes
@flawse it's in the rewards app on xbox, or the rewards site for microsoft. Here's the link for it
https://account.microsoft.com/rewards/
@XBontendo Thanks! You made it way more useful for me! I think I’ve been there, but at the time there were no redeemable items/goals. I see I’m pretty close to €3… heh.
So… yeah… not really for me, but I understand the appeal if you put in the time anyway.
It's not available in Ireland which is just wrong from Microsoft. Seen this with other reward offers as well.
@TheLightSpirit This is a site about games. Kids very likely use the site.
@TheLightSpirit doesnt mean you need to encourage it. If you were swearing around my children I would ask you to stop. Generally speaking I don't see why the rules should change because you're on the internet.
@TheLightSpirit never argued against the fact. Still not an excuse to use such words in polite conversation, which I like to think is what we're having here.
Subnautica is another good one to achieve 1000GS with. Under 1 hour if you follow a guide. Also on Game Pass.
@XBontendo you're 3k away from a $100 gift card?! I think this challenge should take me up to almost £15!
I know the gift cards you redeem expire after 90 days but do the actual reward points expire? Can you just leave them until you are ready to redeem them for a gift card?
@ralphdibny Points don't, I've been hoarding these for about a year (I'm very aggressive about my point earning)
@ralphdibny between February and around November last year I'd saved 120,000 rewards points, I did this thinking I'd use them against a new Series X but haven't been able to get one so I used all but 10,000 in the sales which is when I usually spend them. I got myself Cyberpunk 2077 , Watchdogs 3 and 8 4k UHD films. I'm now sitting on 37,217 only 2 months later. It's a great way to get AAA games for nothing or Gamepass Ultimate.
@XBontendo nice one, that's good to know, cheers! I think I'm on the lower end of point earning. I just claim what comes from natural play. I did try and do it hardcore for a few days, doing all the bing searches, looking at recipes on Microsoft. Com etc but I've done these sorts of things in the past (myNintendo, JobSpotter etc) and just for me personally in my experience, the reward isn't really worth the work so I was keen to not get bogged down with getting points religiously. But I think this 10k point one is OK because I get to add a few games to my completed list and earn a tenner at the same time. Just playing through the Walking Dead Season 2 now, Season 1 was really good considering I don't watch the show!
@Braindeed holy crap! That would literally be amazing to just play games and "unlock" next gen. I'm gutted you couldn't get hold of one though, hopefully you can feel like you've offset the cost of the series X because you've bought games/films with points that you would have spent the same money on.
I actually "earned" a PS3 through cokezone about ten years ago. I used to drink tons of diet coke and I put the point codes in the website religiously. I finally got enough points after a year or 2 and there was no PS3 reward to claim. I e mailed them and they told me they didn't do "high value rewards" any more and they sent out an e mail to let us know. I'm notoriously bad at deleting e mails so I checked and hadn't received it and told them so. They said there was an error and I didn't get the e mail and that I could pick any console from a list they gave me! I chose a PS3 and it was posted to me so it worked out well in the end!
Hey @FraserG, random question. I didn't get any of my points from the gamerscore punchcard. I didn't get the full 10K but the punchcard is gone now and i don't have the points? I'll be contacting Xbox to see what's up buy do you have any insight on this?
@Krzzystuff That's strange! I got around 5.5k, and mine just were added to my total as I went along throughout the month.
I'd suggest contacting the Microsoft support team for sure, they're typically very good at helping with Rewards stuff.
Missed this first time round will give it a proper go this time out
Thanks for the guide - much appreciated
Rushing games for less than £10 what's the point.
@Originut yea I don't have this available in Canada either. Is this something that is typically only done regionally? I've not had an Xbox before this so I don't really know what to expect from these promotions.
@Spjnextgen
Depends on if you'd actually play this games to begin with and how much you want that £10. lol
I've looked on the rewards app on Xbox and can't find this? Where is it?
@Snake_V5 It's only available in select regions unfortunately.
@FraserG Oh I see. I'm from the UK so probably why then.
@Snake_V5 Oh, UK? You should be seeing it - it has shown up for me on the Microsoft Rewards app at the top.
@FraserG Just looked again and no, nothing. This is all I see,
@Snake_V5 Had a look around and it appears that some users just aren't seeing it for whatever reason.
Hopefully it shows up for you soon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/najvch/10_000_gs_challenge_does_not_appear_on_my_main/
Another easy 1000GS on Game Pass is The Sims 4. With this guide it takes a few hours instead of 80 > https://youtu.be/C37AUUFzL3s
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...