This is a routine weekend promotion, published on Xbox Wire by Xbox marketing manager Kyle Ocean. It's still worth a quick read before you download anything, because each game has its own platform support, store pricing and multiplayer rules. Those details decide whether a free weekend actually works on the device you have.
Free Play Days for September 24–27 splits four games across two access tiers
Xbox Wire is clear about who gets what. The Escapists 2 and Young Suns are available this weekend for XBOX Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential members to play from Thursday, September 24 until Sunday, September 27. It adds that PGA TOUR 2K25 and The Division 2 are free for all XBOX members to try from September 24 until September 27 (XBOX Game Pass Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential membership not required).
The announcement gives no end time or time zone, only Sunday, September 27. Past events show why this matters. When Diablo IV was free for all members in September 2025, Xbox Wire said access ran from September 23 at 10:00 am PDT until September 30 at 10:00 am PDT. This year's post gives no hour, so plan to finish by Sunday rather than counting on a Monday-morning grace period.
Here's the lineup in one table:
| Game | Who can play | Platforms named in Xbox materials | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Escapists 2 | Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, Essential | Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S (store listing) | Co-op prison-escape game from Team17 |
| Young Suns | Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, Essential | Console and PC (Xbox Wire) | Smart Delivery, Xbox Play Anywhere |
| PGA TOUR 2K25 | All Xbox members | PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, handheld (store listing) | Standard Edition only |
| Tom Clancy's The Division 2 | All Xbox members | Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming (store listing) | Standard Edition discounted up to 90% |
PGA TOUR 2K25 moves from Game Pass perk to open trial
PGA TOUR 2K25 keeps coming back to Free Play Days, but this time it's open to everyone. In the June 2026 event, the PGA Tour 2K25 Standard Edition, Two Point Museum and Assetto Corsa are available this weekend for XBOX Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential members, and Dead by Daylight was the only title open to all players. In late September 2025, PGA TOUR 2K25 was again limited to subscribers, back when the tiers were still called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Standard and Core. This weekend, anyone with an Xbox account can install it.
The offer covers the Standard Edition. Xbox Wire ties the weekend to the game's live events: Ranked Tours at the Championship at Del Cerro, themed Ranked Rewards for your MyPLAYER character, and a weekly quest called "The Captain's Call." To finish the quest, you hit five fairways in regulation (FIRs), make five birdies in one round, and sink three putts from 10 feet or more. The rewards are 250 VC (the game's virtual currency), three Fittings, a level-up token, 600 MyPLAYER XP and a Silver Leather Watch cosmetic.
Check your hardware before you download. The Microsoft Store listing shows PGA TOUR 2K25 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming and handhelds, but not on Xbox One. The general install steps mention Xbox One, but for this game they don't apply. The listing names 2K as publisher and HB Studios as developer, with a release date of February 28, 2025. It also lists cross-platform multiplayer, online multiplayer for 2 to 20 players, and Xbox Play Anywhere support. Xbox Wire lists a $39.99 US price, and the UK store shows £39.99.
The Division 2's free weekend matters most to Essential members and non-subscribers
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is Ubisoft's 2019 tactical open-world third-person shooter, set in a post-pandemic Washington, D.C. You can play it solo or with friends. The free weekend has an extra wrinkle: according to the UK Microsoft Store listing, the game is already included with Game Pass Premium and Ultimate. For members on those tiers, the free weekend adds nothing. The people who gain something are Essential members, who don't get the game in their catalog, and anyone with no subscription at all.
Xbox Wire says you can save up to 90% on the Standard Edition for a limited time. "Up to" means the discount can vary by region. The UK listing showed the game cut from £24.99 to £3.74, a saving of £21.25 (about 85%), with the sale ending in 13 days. The Division 2 runs on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The store lists online co-op for two to four players and online multiplayer for up to 16.
Cloud access varies by tier too. The store says the game is included for cloud play with Premium and Ultimate, but Essential members have to buy it before they can stream it.
Online multiplayer for non-subscribers is the catch in "free for all"
Being allowed to install a game for free doesn't mean every mode is open. The PGA TOUR 2K25 store listing states that online multiplayer on console requires Game Pass Essential, Premium or Ultimate, with subscriptions sold separately. The Division 2's listing says online multiplayer and features require an internet connection, a Ubisoft account and a Microsoft account, plus a Game Pass subscription. That notice still uses the old "Ultimate or Core" tier names.
Xbox Wire doesn't explain how those rules apply during the free weekend. My reading of the store terms is that a console player without a subscription may be limited to offline content. The Division 2 also expects you to link a Ubisoft account for its online features. On PC, the console multiplayer requirement doesn't apply in the same way, so PGA TOUR 2K25 on Windows avoids the console online paywall.
For PGA TOUR 2K25, this caveat could get in the way of the ranked and quest content Xbox Wire promotes. If you mostly want to try the swing mechanics, offline modes are enough. If you want to climb the Del Cerro Ranked Tour on console, check whether online play works without a subscription before you invest the weekend.
The Escapists 2 and Young Suns reward Game Pass members, with PC access for one
The Escapists 2 is Team17's co-op prison-escape game. You plan a breakout, craft tools from everyday items like soap and socks, and fight your way out when the plan falls apart. The Microsoft Store lists Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S support, single-player, split-screen, and local and online co-op for two to four players. Watch out for the price shown on Xbox Wire: the $34.99 figure is for The Escapists + The Escapists 2 bundle, not the standalone game. On the UK store, The Escapists 2 alone was down 80%, from £19.99 to £3.99.
Young Suns is the only game in this lineup that Xbox Wire explicitly says will be available on console and PC. It's tagged as Optimized for XBOX Series X|S, Smart Delivery, XBOX Play Anywhere. Smart Delivery gives you the right version for your console. Play Anywhere is Microsoft's program for games that work across Xbox and Windows PCs with one entitlement. Xbox Wire describes the game as a multiplayer player narrative life sim set on Jupiter in the aftermath of a successful revolution against predatory corporations. You can play it with a crew of up to three friends, or entirely on your own, discovering and repairing broken items for your own use or to donate to the common good.
Essential is on the list of eligible tiers for both games, so the cheapest Game Pass tier is enough this weekend. For Young Suns, the event terms set by Xbox Wire are what count. Don't go by the game's regular Game Pass catalog listing, which can differ.
How to install Free Play Days games on console and PC
Xbox uses the same install process as in past Free Play Days events:
- On PC or in a browser, find the game's details page on Xbox.com. The link will send you to the Microsoft Store, where you must be signed in to see the option to install with your XBOX Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential membership.
- On an Xbox console, click on the Subscriptions tab in the XBOX Store and navigate down to the Free Play Days collection on your XBOX One and XBOX Series X|S.
- Before downloading, make sure the game supports your hardware. PGA TOUR 2K25 isn't listed for Xbox One, and only Young Suns is explicitly confirmed for PC in the event announcement.
If you buy a game after the trial, Xbox says you keep the Gamerscore and achievements you earned during the event. Discounts, percentages and which games are available can vary by title and region. Xbox doesn't say whether other progress, such as a PGA TOUR 2K25 MyPLAYER or a Division 2 character, carries over. Don't assume it does.
What this means for you
Your subscription tier decides which of the four games you can play. If you have no Game Pass, you can install PGA TOUR 2K25 and The Division 2. Essential members get all four. Premium and Ultimate members already have The Division 2 in their catalog, so for them the free weekend adds The Escapists 2, Young Suns and PGA TOUR 2K25. If you're thinking of buying, the sale prices make sense when the weekend confirms the game works on your hardware and in the modes you care about.
- Access for all four games runs Thursday, September 24 through Sunday, September 27, 2026, and Xbox has published no end time.
- PGA TOUR 2K25 (Standard Edition) and The Division 2 need no Game Pass subscription, while The Escapists 2 and Young Suns need Ultimate, Premium or Essential.
- PGA TOUR 2K25's store listing doesn't include Xbox One, so Xbox One owners should skip it and Windows PC or Series X|S players should try it.
- Store listings for PGA TOUR 2K25 and The Division 2 say online console multiplayer requires a Game Pass tier, so non-subscribers on console should expect limits on online modes.
- The Division 2's Standard Edition discount goes up to 90%, and the UK store showed £3.74. The Escapists 2 alone was 80% off in the UK, and the $34.99 figure on Xbox Wire is a bundle price.
- Gamerscore and achievements carry over if you buy, but Xbox makes no promise about other save data or online progress.
Free Play Days is still a low-risk way to try a game before buying, and moving PGA TOUR 2K25 from a subscriber perk to an open trial widens that. The fine print on hardware support and online access now matters more than the headline. The sale prices stay up after the weekend, with The Division 2's UK discount showing about two weeks left, so you can play first and decide once the trial ends.
Update: Pure Xbox reports a late September 27 cutoff (September 24, 2026)
Pure Xbox reports that all four Free Play Days titles will remain playable until late on September 27. That is more specific than Xbox Wire’s announcement, which names September 27 as the final day but does not publish an exact end time or time zone.
The outlet does not provide a precise hour, so players should still avoid treating “late” as a guaranteed deadline. For anyone planning co-op sessions, ranked PGA TOUR 2K25 play, or a final Division 2 run, finishing earlier on Sunday remains the safest approach.
Update: Neowin lists a 11:59 pm PT Free Play Days deadline (September 24, 2026)
Neowin reports that the four-game Free Play Days promotion ends at 11:59 pm PT on Sunday, September 27. That provides the specific cutoff Xbox Wire did not include and supersedes the earlier guidance to assume only a vague late-Sunday end.
The deadline applies to The Escapists 2, Young Suns, PGA TOUR 2K25 and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. Players should plan around Pacific Time, particularly if they are downloading larger games or arranging co-op sessions near the end of the promotion.
Neowin also reports that PGA TOUR 2K25 and The Division 2 can be played without Game Pass restrictions, including their multiplayer modes. That conflicts with the console-store subscription notices cited above, so non-subscribers should treat the claim cautiously and confirm online access in-game before relying on ranked or co-op play.