An Xbox Game With 50% One-Star Reviews Is Still the Top Game With a Million Players in Week 1

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August 10, 2026

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Published Aug 10, 2026, 6:08 AM EDT

There's no accounting for taste

Mistfall Hunter hits 1 million players on Game Pass — but the reviews are brutal

An extraction action-RPG with a fantasy-themed twist is dominating on Game Pass and the charts in its first week, surpassing 1 million players. This would already be a surprising success given the genre's oversaturation and challenges, but it's made even better by the overwhelmingly negative reviews the game has received.

Bellring Games and Skystone Games' latest success is Mistfall Hunter, which debuted on PC and Xbox Series X/S on July 30. Players take on the role of Gyldhunters who have been revived by a mysterious woman named Dew for a new mission: to harvest the Gyldenblood and mend the Web of Fate. In this bleak fantasy world, players can either scavenge and fight solo or team up with friends.

Mistfall Hunter quickly rose to prominence within the gaming community, peaking on Steam at 44.5k. The official Mistfall Hunter X account soon celebrated its one million player milestone. While the game being free-to-play via Game Pass may explain why there are so many new players around, the biggest shock is that Mistfall Hunter's success seems to ignore the negative reviews on Xbox and Steam.

The negativity surrounding the game appears to stem from several issues. One significant concern is region locking, which prevents players from connecting with friends or other players outside their region. Additionally, players mention that the lagging servers make the PvP experience particularly frustrating. Some players even report difficulty getting past the character creation screen, while others lament spambots in the chat. Overall, there do seem to be multiple frustrating factors which could deter new players from enjoying the game.

While Bellring Games has yet to acknowledge these complaints, the developer is already addressing the future seasons of Mistfall Hunter. Alongside the announcement of its player milestone, Bellring Games revealed a roadmap that highlighted new seasonal tasks, weapons, monsters, and events, including a tease of a new theme for its second season.

With the plethora of extraction games available on the market, it's significant that the development team, for now, doesn't prioritize stepping up their game to keep the players who jumped into Mistfall Hunter during its first week. With a new season on the way and updates planned, it looks like the Mistfall Hunter team doesn't care too much about bad reviews, at least for now.