Xbox Game Pass first November wave brings three games on 5 November, led by day-one Escape Academy 2
Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, Firefighting Simulator: Ignite and the MySims Cozy Bundle all join Xbox Game Pass on 5 November as part of Microsoft’s first November wave, which runs from 3 to 17 November.
Microsoft’s first Xbox Game Pass wave for November 2026 reaches its busiest single day on Wednesday 5 November, when three games arrive on the subscription service at once, headed by the day-one launch of Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School.
The November wave was announced by Xbox on 3 November and runs through 17 November, covering 15 games across the Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass tiers. The early part of the wave had already delivered Football Manager 27 on PC and the online horror co-op game Pit of Goblin on 3 November, followed by Vampire Crawlers and Void/Breaker on 4 November.
On 5 November, the headline arrival is Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, the sequel to the well-received 2022 puzzle game. Its developer, Coin Crew Games, describes it as the first open-world escape room game, and it supports online and local two-player co-operation. It is available on cloud, Xbox Series X|S, handheld and PC for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers, and it arrives on the service on the same day it goes on sale.
The second game of the day is Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, from astragon and weltenbauer, which puts players in the role of a United States firefighter working alongside up to three friends or a computer-controlled crew. It is the broadest of the three arrivals in tier terms, joining cloud, Xbox Series X|S and PC for Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass members alike.
The third arrival, MySims Cozy Bundle, brings back two much-loved re-releases in a single package: the original MySims and MySims Kingdom. It joins cloud, console and PC for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers, giving the retro pair their widest console and cloud availability in the bundle.
The timing matters for subscribers planning the month, because the wave is deliberately front-loaded. After the 5 November trio, the console edition of Football Manager 27, Warhammer Survivors and Tanuki: Pon’s Summer all arrive as day-one releases on 10 November, with Thronefall following on 11 November and further titles, including Aphelion and Paw Patrol: Dino World, closing the wave on 17 November.
The wave also draws a clear line between the tiers. Its day-one releases sit with Ultimate and PC Game Pass, while Premium picks up eight of the wave’s games in total, including Pit of Goblin, Vampire Crawlers, Void/Breaker, Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, Thronefall and John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando on 12 November. Players on the cheapest tier therefore still get a substantial share of the month, but not the launch-day titles.
The same date that brings new classics also brings departures. On 15 November, eight Rare and Xbox classics join the Game Pass Essential library, including Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, both Viva Piñata games, Gears of War: Judgment and Halo: Spartan Assault, while 13 games leave the service that day, among them GoldenEye 007, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Wreckfest.
For players, the practical takeaway is simple: 5 November is the day to try the escape-room sequel, the firefighting co-op game and the MySims bundle without buying any of them separately, while the rest of the wave rewards anyone willing to wait a few more days for Warhammer Survivors and the other day-one releases. A second wave later in the month will then decide how the subscription year ends, just as the industry’s attention turns to the biggest console launch of the season later in November.
As ever with a monthly wave, dates and tiers can change, and subscribers should check the Xbox app or the official Game Pass page before planning around a specific title. But on the published schedule, 5 November stands out as the month’s first real test of the service’s range: a puzzle sequel, a co-operative simulator and a nostalgic bundle, all arriving on the same day.
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