- South of Midnight Achievements
- South of Midnight News
- Forum32
- Walkthrough
- Reviews1*
- Price
South of Midnight's Xbox Game Pass player count has landed with us, showing that it's the fifth most popular day one game in its debut seven days.
Kes Eylers-Stephenson
Published
South of Midnight was 52% more popular than critical darling Blue Prince on XGP
- Get magical with the South of Midnight achievements
- Our data shows that the console exclusive has been the fifth biggest day one debut on Xbox Game Pass in 2025
- Completion Games' action adventure landed on Xbox Series X|S and PC in early April 2025
Using our data, we can see that amongst our representative sample South of Midnight has been the fifth most popular Xbox Game Pass debut of 2025 so far, behind some massive releases like Avowed and Atomfall. You can see the top ten (and Blue Prince) below:
Most popular day-one Xbox Game Pass games of 2025 so far
- Avowed (February 2025)
- Atomfall (March 2025)
- Sniper Elite: Resistance (January 2025)
- Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (January 2025)
- South of Midnight (April 2025)
- Crime Scene Cleaner (April 2025)
- Eternal Strands (January 2025)
- Lonely Mountain Snow Riders (January 2025)
- Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (January 2025)
- Mullet Mudjack (March 2025)
- Blue Prince (April 2025)
Let's get back to South of Midnight, which has debuted as the most popular of the day one games from April 2025 so far. That list includes viral hit Crime Scene Cleaner in sixth place and puzzler Blue Prince, which you can see in 11th place. Both Tempopo and Commandos: Origins were also released, but were significantly off the pace in terms of popularity (remember, popularity isn't indicative of quality!).
South of Midnight
South of Midnight had 9.2% more players from our representative sample than Crime Scene Cleaner. This viral hit has found its stride with Xbox Game Pass. We probably should've seen that coming, given everyone's love of PowerWash Simulator two years ago!
Indeed, the action adventure also has 51.9% more players than critically acclaimed Blue Prince. That is surprising if you look at it from a purely critical point of view, with Sean pointing out in his South of Midnight review that he thought it was more style than substance. Blue Prince has been thriving critically, though it has come under scrutiny from puzzle fans frustrated with the RNG elements.
That aside, South of Midnight is from a first-party studio and has plenty of marketing power behind it. It's easily accessible given how much it's plastered over the Xbox storefront and Game Pass landing pages. Throw in the fact that puzzlers tend not to do as well as story-driven cinematic experiences anyway, and the reason Blue Prince is further down the list is clear.
South of Midnight
For a final player count comparison, South of Midnight had 66.7% fewer players than Avowed on its debut (our leading day one game this year). There are obvious differences in scope and budget between the two games, but this isn't a statistical representation of quality. I just think it is interesting how the gap in the volume of players shows the huge scale of players that will check out an AAA RPG like Avowed, compared to another first-party game.
So, what do you think of our top ten up there? Has anything surprised you? Would any games qualify for the best Xbox Game Pass games? Get in the comments to let us know, TrueAchievements statisticians
Data compiled using gameplay data from over 3.1 million active Xbox accounts. Chart information is copyright Game Trends (formerly GameInsights). For details on how this data is calculated, click here.
- When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
- Our data is suitable for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.
More South of Midnight stories:
- Poll: Which day one Xbox Game Pass games have been your favorite in 2025 so far?
- Xbox Game Pass adds two more games today
- A whopping 30 new games are coming to Xbox next week
- South of Midnight guide: 3 tips to help you weave through the Xbox adventure
- Poll: Which new April releases are you playing on Xbox this month?
Xbox Game PassXbox Series X|SXbox OneWindows
Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson
Editor-in-Chief Kes helps write Xbox and Microsoft news but also explores Xbox games like The Witcher IV, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II using years of experience in RPGs and action-adventure games. He also helps cover the best Xbox and Game Pass games, though he tends to gravitate towards playing on PlayStation!
Join
View discussion...
