An Xbox One and Xbox Series X game that is completely free to download is one of the top-rated games ever released on the Xbox Store and the highest-rated free-to-play game ever released on the Xbox Store. It is specifically the 15th highest-rated game on the Xbox Store overall, in company with games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Minecraft, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the original Star Wars Battlefront II. To achieve this, a game needs not only stellar user reviews, but a lot of them. The game in question has over 300,000 user reviews, making it one of the most-reviewed games on the Xbox Store, and 92% of these reviews rate the game 4/5 stars or better.
The free Xbox game in question is Gameloft’s 2018 arcade racing game, Asphalt Legends. As you may know, free-to-play games obviously have no barrier to entry, which doesn’t lend itself to glowing user reviews. To purchase a game, most consumers are going to do research or have familiarity with the series, both of which ensure they will likely enjoy it. With a free-to-play game, this doesn’t exist. To this end, there is not a single other free-to-play game among the top-rated games on the Xbox Store.
15th Highest-Rated Game on the Xbox Store of All Time
Asphalt Legends is the ninth installment in the Asphalt series, which dates back to 2004. While it debuted in 2018, it didn’t come to Xbox consoles — Xbox One and Xbox Series X — until 2021. What makes its rating on the Xbox Store so surprising is that it only has a 74 on Metacritic, a fine score, but not great. And there’s no reason to suspect botting is the explanation for this. The game also has a large number of user reviews elsewhere, including the PlayStation Store, but the rating just isn’t as high. For whatever reason, this free-to-play racing game has really resonated with Xbox users. Heck, it’s higher rated on the digital storefront than all of the acclaimed Forza Horizon games.
Of course, while the racing game is free to download, it does have a free-to-play model to generate revenue. That said, the entire game can be played without spending any money, especially at a casual level, which is probably how most players interact with it. More hardcore players who play the game more will find that if they don’t spend money, it can get very grindy, like most free-to-play games. Meanwhile, because it is free-to-play, an Xbox Game Pass subscription is not required for its online play.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the conversations happening over on the ComicBook Forum.