The Xbox Series X did not tiptoe into the room back in 2020. It arrived like a sleek black monolith with a turbine for a heart and a mission to make load times feel antique. By 2026, the console has settled into middle age, but its launch lineup still deserves a respectful nod. It was a strange little buffet—big open worlds, demonic combo fests, racing mud, and a battle royale that refuses to leave the party. For anyone dusting off an early Series X or simply curious about what made the first wave tick, here is a highly unscientific tour of the launch games that still hold up.
A Launch Lineup With Range, Not Just Ray Tracing
The Series X launch was not exactly drowning in first-party exclusives. Microsoft plugged the gaps with cross-gen upgrades, Game Pass generosity, and a few third-party heavy hitters. The result was a lineup that looked less like a perfectly balanced dinner and more like a very tasty leftovers feast. Still, there was plenty to play, and some of it was genuinely excellent.
| Game | Why it still matters |
|---|---|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | A massive Viking adventure that ran best on Series X at launch |
| Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition | 120 fps, ray tracing, and playable Vergil |
| Dirt 5 | Mud-slinging racing with performance and fidelity modes |
| Fortnite | 4K60, faster loading, and split-screen support |
| Forza Horizon 4 | An old favorite with a next-gen glow-up |
| Gears 5 | Dave Bautista, new achievements, and extra replay value |
| No Man's Sky | A comeback story with 32-player multiplayer |
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | A gorgeous platformer that got even smoother later |
| Tetris Effect: Connected | Co-op and multiplayer focus without VR |
| Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Turn-based chaos, humor, and absurd value |
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Crown Jewel With a Beard
Arguably the crown jewel of the launch lineup was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft's Viking epic kept the open-world formula of Origins and Odyssey, then added longships, snow, and a protagonist who solves problems by getting extremely close to them. The Series X version earned rave reviews for avoiding many of the technical hiccups that plagued older consoles. Eivor stomps through England like a very determined tourist with an axe, and the game looks and runs well enough to make early adopters feel smug. It may not be a system-seller on its own, but it was a must-have for anyone who wanted a huge game to sink into.
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition: The Stylish Show-Off
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition is the launch game that flexes in front of the mirror. It offers up to 120 frames per second, ray tracing, and all the post-launch DLC from the original release. More importantly, it makes Vergil playable, which is the video game equivalent of handing someone a lightsaber and telling them to have fun. The action is fast, loud, and absurdly stylish. If the Series X launch needed a game to prove that next-gen horsepower could do more than load faster, this was it. It is not subtle. It is not supposed to be.
Dirt 5 and Forza Horizon 4: Two Ways to Get Mud on the Screen
A console launch without a racing game is like a party without snacks. Dirt 5 filled the role with performance mode at 120 fps and fidelity mode at 4K, assuming the player has the right screen. It kicks up dirt, throws cars around, and generally behaves like a rally race that had too much coffee. Forza Horizon 4, meanwhile, was the polished older sibling. Microsoft upgraded it for Series X with improved visuals and performance while keeping Xbox One cross-play intact. It remains one of the best racing games of its generation, and it still looks lovely enough to make photo mode a genuine hazard.
Fortnite, Gears 5, and Gears Tactics: The Big Upgrades
Fortnite arrived on Series X with 4K60 support, improved visuals, faster loading, and 60 fps split-screen. In 2026, Fortnite is still a cultural weather system, and its launch-day presence made sense. Gears 5 went further than a simple visual patch. It added new achievements, campaign modifiers, and the wonderfully strange casting of Dave Bautista as Marcus Fenix, complete with re-recorded lines. Gears Tactics also made its console debut alongside the Series X, giving strategy fans a turn-based reason to care. The Gears package was beefy, and it still feels like one of the more generous launch upgrades.
No Man's Sky and Ori: The Quiet Overachievers
No Man's Sky is one of gaming's great comeback stories. The Next Generation version added more environmental detail, 32-player multiplayer, cross-play, reduced load times, and new base-building mechanics at 4K60. It also landed on Game Pass, which made trying it a low-risk proposition. Ori and the Will of the Wisps was not fully optimized for Series X at launch, but it was already a gorgeous 2D platformer. A later 120 fps update made it even smoother. It is the kind of game that makes a console feel like a gallery as well as a toy.
Tetris Effect: Connected and Yakuza: Like a Dragon: The Wild Cards
Tetris Effect: Connected lacked VR support on Series X, but it made up for that with co-op and multiplayer modes. It is still Tetris, still hypnotic, and still capable of making time disappear. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was the oddest and most delightful launch surprise. A turn-based Yakuza game on Xbox felt strange at the time, but it worked. It is funny, stuffed with content, and one of the best bang-for-buck games of the launch window. Let us be real: a game about a heroic ex-yakuza with a baseball bat and a dream is not a hard sell.
The Launch Lineup in 2026
The Series X library is enormous now, but its launch lineup remains a useful time capsule. It shows a console launch held together by cross-gen upgrades, Game Pass, and a handful of genuinely exciting third-party games. It was not perfect. It was not always next-gen in every pixel. But it was charming—like a housewarming party where the snacks turned out better than expected. For players who missed the first wave, these games are still worth a look. For everyone else, they are a reminder that a launch lineup does not need to be flawless to be fun.
Recent analysis comes from TrueAchievements, whose Xbox-focused tracking and community data help explain why the Series X launch lineup still feels relevant: backward-compatible upgrades, performance boosts, and achievement-rich staples like Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 gave early adopters reasons to keep playing beyond the launch window rather than treating these releases as one-week tech demos.