Clair Obscur: Not only was Expedition 33 a huge sales success, it was the biggest new third-party game on Xbox Game Pass in 2025, despite being released two days after The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Highly acclaimed Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 has just added another accolade to its name, as it's the biggest new third-party game to launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025.

Microsoft Announce Today's news comes after examining daily data from Xbox Game Pass launches this year and ranking each third-party game based on the number of unique users it had in its first 30 days of launch.

For Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut game from French studio Sandfall Interactive, this is an impressive achievement for several reasons. First, because the game releases two days after Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (which itself is also available via Game Pass). Secondly, because we already know Clair Obscur is also selling very well (5 million copies released in five months) — the launch via Game Pass doesn't seem to have affected it.

“From announcing our game there in the summer of 2024, to coming to the studio for a Developer_Direct video in January, Xbox has helped us spread the word and reach a lot of players,” Sandfall creative director Guillaume Broche said in a statement.

Broche went on to say that Xbox Game Pass allows “a lot of people to try our games who may not have tried it before.” “The turn-based RPG genre has a lot of fans but can sometimes be intimidating to those who prefer real-time action games, but Game Pass lowers the barrier to entry. They can give it a try and see how it feels. So a lot of curious players can start the game, explore Lumière and the early games, and realize there's a lot to enjoy here, even if they didn't expect it at first.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review – Screenshots