Xbox Game Pass July 2026 Wave 2 Adds Halo Day One
Master Chief is landing on Game Pass day one, and honestly, we did not expect Microsoft to slip this one so casually into a mid-month lineup. The second wave of July 2026 additions just went live, and it is stacked. Halo: Campaign Evolved headlines the whole thing, but there is a solid week of games worth clearing some drive space for.
Let us run through what actually matters.
Halo: Campaign Evolved, day one
This is the big one. Halo: Campaign Evolved rebuilds the original Combat Evolved campaign from 2001, and it hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on July 28, day and date with launch. Think modernized visuals, tighter controls, three brand new missions, and up to four-player online co-op across the campaign. If you have been sitting on the fence about the remake, running it on a sub you already pay for is a pretty easy yes.
The rest of the wave
Halo is not flying solo. Shift at Midnight, an online co-op detective horror game, drops day one on July 22. Hell is Us follows on the 23rd, so if you slept on it last year, here is your second chance. Then the back half of the month gets busy: Mistfall Hunter on July 30 and the PC-only Corsair Cove on July 31.
Early August keeps the momentum going. Game Freak's Beast of Reincarnation, an action RPG that blends real-time and turn-based combat, arrives day one on August 4. Same day, the classic Heretic + Hexen bundle shows up, now on Premium too. Old-school shooter fans, this one is for you.
What is leaving
Every silver lining has a cloud, right? Eight games walk out the door on July 31, and a few of them sting: Celeste, Crusader Kings 3, Rain World, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, Sniper Elite Resistance, Back to the Dawn, My Friendly Neighborhood, and Whiskerwood. If any of those are half-finished in your library, this is the week to wrap them up.
All told, this is one of the stronger waves we have seen all year, and the Halo day-one drop alone is enough to keep a subscription ticking over.
So, are you diving into Halo: Campaign Evolved the second it drops, or is Beast of Reincarnation the one pulling you back in? Drop it in the comments.