High on Life becomes the biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass launch ever

High on Life is a comedic first-person shooter game, with action-adventure and metroidvania elements, taking place in a science fiction world, which features talking guns. It was created by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and developed and published by Squanch Games.

Earth has been invaded by the malicious alien G3 Cartel, who seek to use the native human population as drugs. Playing the role of a human bounty hunter and aided by a number of living weapons, called Gatlians, the player must navigate the galaxy and hunt down the G3 Cartel's leadership in order to save humanity.

High on Life was released on the 12th of December and has quickly become the biggest Xbox Game Pass launch of 2022, and the biggest third-party launch ever. In addition, High on Life has surpassed Minecraft as the most popular game on Xbox Game Pass.

“This was our first time launching a game with Game Pass,” said Mike Fridley, Studio Director and COO of Squanch Games, “and we’ve been blown away by the response from the players who have made us the most popular game on Game Pass right now. When Squanch Games was first created, it was to make the games we wanted to play — and Game Pass is helping us reach the players that want to play those games too.”

With the popularity of the Netflix hit Rick and Morty, as well as the ability to play the game from launch by just having a game pass subscription, it’s not surprising that High on Life has had such a successful launch. High on Life has also achieved success with the PC launch receiving a 9/10 rating on Steam as well as very positive reviews.