Is No Man's Sky On Xbox Game Pass?
No Man’s Sky is on Xbox Game Pass. I mean, yes, it really is. If someone told me years back, when Hello Games’ ambitious universe first launched and crashed (in a flaming ball of unmet hype), that one day I’d be downloading it as part of a monthly subscription, I wouldn’t just be surprised — I’d probably snort-laugh and check if the world wasn’t upside down. But as of August 2025, it’s there, sitting right among the big hitters and indie darlings in the Game Pass library.
It’s actually kind of awesome. You boot it up, see that “Play with Game Pass” badge, and realize you can just jump straight into procedural planets without needing to cough up more cash. There’s something liberating about that — makes the intimidating size of No Man’s Sky more approachable. I’ll admit, I have this ritual: download games on a whim just because they’re included, try them for half an hour (sometimes ten minutes, one time two), then decide if this digital universe is for me. With No Man’s Sky, my very first session turned into a two-hour deep dive messing around with ship upgrades and accidentally getting hostile with space police. Not bad for a free evening experiment.
The updates keep coming, too. The “Voyagers” expansion hit around August 2025, so if you’re already on Game Pass, you get it at no extra charge. It’s actually kind of wild how much Hello Games keeps adding, especially for Game Pass players. Every time there’s “just one more update,” you know half the community is either celebrating or nervously hoping they haven’t broken something again. I bounced into a Discord call with a buddy last week, and he was already raving about some new ship design mechanic. Meanwhile, I was still stuck mining minerals in an asteroid field, dodging pirates with the finesse of a caffeinated squirrel.
So why does it matter if No Man’s Sky is “on Game Pass”? First, the obvious part: it takes away most of the risk. If you’re on the fence (or burned out by earlier versions), just grab it, try it, drop it if it’s all too much cosmic hoopla. Second, it opens up multiplayer possibilities. Suddenly, everyone in your group can hop in together, at least if they’re not stuck on PlayStation. Third, there’s just something satisfying about seeing an underdog game — one that recovered from a pretty disastrous launch — go on to become a core part of the Xbox ecosystem. Not quite redemption arc worthy of a movie, but still... a good story.
For the Game Pass crowd, here’s what’s up:
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No Man’s Sky is available on Xbox Game Pass, for both Series X/S and Xbox One.
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You don’t pay extra for the latest updates — those drop for subscribers right away.
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You’ll need the usual Game Pass sub, and for online co-op, whatever Xbox subscription tier covers multiplayer.
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Jump in, test it out, explore some weird planets, see what you feel. If you’re lucky, you might even find one of those purple cow planets that people keep posting about.
Would I recommend it? Sure. Not because it’s flawless — still gets a bit janky with menus sometimes, and space travel can be lonely if your friends bail for Goat Simulator. But the sense of scale and possibility is genuinely cool, and honestly, Game Pass makes those experimental gaming nights so much easier. If you ever wanted to wander through a universe where getting lost is half the fun, now is as good a time as any. Don’t overthink it. Download, play, and see what stories you get out of it. Even if yours includes being trounced by angry space security on your first flight.
