Eventho half the year has passed, imma start up my TA player count charts. I think it'll be more interesting to see a top 10 Gamepass and top 10 non-gamepass instead of one 20 game count list so i'm going to try that.

Top 10 2026 Games by TA Player count (Game Pass) 

Top 10 Games by TA Player Count (Not on Game Pass)

Weird:

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was due to hit Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass on July 21, but a note added to the Game Pass post on Xbox Wire confirms its removal from the lineup. It reads:

“Editor’s Note (7/13): We’ve removed Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 from the list of titles coming soon to Game Pass.”

It’s worth noting that Microsoft owns Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 via its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, so it’s in complete control of publishing the title. Indeed, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 was added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass this time last year, and Game Pass premium just last month.

It has been suggested that there may be a licensing issue preventing the music-heavy game from being released on Game Pass now, nearly six years after it came out. You’d like to think Microsoft or Activision would have been aware of that before announcing it as coming to Game Pass later this month, though.

Microsoft is of course in the process of resetting Xbox, which saw 1,600 staff cut last week and four studios exit the business. Another 1,600 staff will go over the course of the rest of this financial year, leaving remaining staff facing an anxious wait to find out if they're next on the chopping block. Microsoft has said it will now focus on its biggest franchises, including Halo, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.

ice said:

Eventho half the year has passed, imma start up my TA player count charts. I think it'll be more interesting to see a top 10 Gamepass and top 10 non-gamepass instead of one 20 game count list so i'm going to try that. 

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Lovely. Always happy for charts, and this one is interesting. Can you help explain it, what is "TA" and is this across platforms?

TA = TrueAchievments. 

True Achievements is an achievement tracking site with over 1m registered users. So it tracks Xbox series X/Xbox One/xbox PC

Thanks. So the numbers show how many of the 1,252,036 players registered on True Achievements have played the respective games (or installed them? Or unlocked at least one achievement in them)? Regardless, impressive attach rate for Forza Horizon.

3 weeks till Quakecon. I wonder if we'll be getting another remaster shadowdrop. We've had them almost every year since 2021. 2022 being the only exception.

We've still got Wolfenstein 3D, Quake 3 and 4, Doom 3, Heretic 2 + Hexen 2, or hell, a Commander Keen collection lol

Commander Keen! I think it was the 4th one I played as a kid. 

Summer sale highlight:

FF7 Remake for $14, £14 or €12.22 via Iceland Xbox store (no VPN needed).

So a few people who were laid off from ID says that what you are hearing from the studio isn't the true picture of what happen and that the core people who were in charge of ID Tech were sent packing. Just from my experience from going through these types of layoffs, I am bias in the fact I believe that ID Tech is dead and when you see the next Machine games goes unreal or ID itself we will not have to waste time beleiving in fantasy. There is still 1600 more jobs scheduled for the block and I am sure you will see the last remnants of the ID tech team on that block as MS tries to quietly drop it. Their focus now really has totally gone away from the gaming segments and its only a matter of time and when.