The 2025 Epic Games Store holiday giveaway ran from December 11, 2025, through January 8, 2026. It used 16 claim windows and distributed 17 individual PC games: Hogwarts Legacy opened the event for a week, most subsequent titles were available for about one day, and Total War: Three Kingdoms and Wildgate arrived together in the final window. Trine Classic Collection also counted as three separately listed games. Every title had to be added to an Epic Games account during its window; downloading could wait. The historical schedule, exact dates and corrected claim rules are below.
What games were free in Epic’s 2025 holiday event?
The confirmed lineup covered major releases, independent games and a three-title collection. The event did not consist of 17 separate daily reveals: there were 16 claim windows, because the last window bundled two games and one earlier window packaged three Trine titles. PC Gamer’s historical list and the edition details at GamerUrge document the schedule.
Hogwarts Legacy was the opening exception, remaining claimable from December 11 through December 18. After that, the promotion generally switched to one title per day, before ending with a combined January 1–8 window. The ordinary weekly giveaway timetable resumed after the holiday promotion.
What was the complete 2025 holiday free-game schedule?
| Claim window | Free game(s) |
|---|---|
| December 11–18, 2025 | Hogwarts Legacy |
| December 18, 2025 | Jötunnslayer: Hordes of Hel |
| December 19, 2025 | Eternights |
| December 20, 2025 | Blood West |
| December 21, 2025 | Sorry We’re Closed |
| December 22, 2025 | Paradise Killer |
| December 23, 2025 | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night |
| December 24, 2025 | The Callisto Protocol |
| December 25, 2025 | Disco Elysium – The Final Cut |
| December 26, 2025 | We Were Here Together |
| December 27, 2025 | Cassette Beasts |
| December 28, 2025 | SKALD: Against the Black Priory |
| December 29, 2025 | Viewfinder |
| December 30, 2025 | Trine Classic Collection: Trine Enchanted Edition, Trine 2: Complete Story and Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power |
| December 31, 2025 | Chivalry 2 |
| January 1–8, 2026 | Total War: Three Kingdoms and Wildgate |
The dates describe when each promotion’s claim period began and ended, not when a download had to finish. The final row is one claim window containing two games, while the Trine row contains three titles that were listed individually for the event’s total of 17 games.
How did you claim a holiday game?
The process used the standard Epic Games Store checkout flow. The visible navigation labels were Free Games and Get, and the completed transaction showed a $0.00 total. Epic’s free-game help page lists an Epic Games account and enabled two-factor authentication as requirements; no subscription is required. See the Epic Games Free Games page and Epic’s account and free-game guidance.
- Open the Epic Games Store website or the Epic Games Launcher.
- Sign in to the Epic Games account that should own the game.
- Open the Free Games section.
- Select the currently featured free-game tile.
- Select Get.
- Complete the $0.00 checkout and claim confirmation.
Once checkout finishes, the title is attached to that account’s library. You do not need to start an installation during the claim window, and the giveaway is a full license rather than a demo or timed trial. A later installation from the library uses the Epic Games Launcher on a compatible PC.
What account and security requirements applied?
- Epic Games account: You had to be signed in to an Epic account to complete the transaction.
- Two-factor authentication: 2FA had to be enabled before claiming. An account without it could not complete the free-game claim until the security requirement was satisfied.
- No subscription: The promotion did not require a paid membership.
- No immediate download: Claiming and installing were separate actions.
- Permanent library entry: A successful claim stayed in the account’s library even if the game was not downloaded right away.
The $0.00 checkout is the confirmation that the entitlement was recorded. If a title is absent from the library afterward, verify that you used the intended Epic account and that checkout reached its completion screen rather than stopping at the product page.
How long was each game available?
Epic’s normal free-game cadence is one release every Thursday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time, with a seven-day claim period. The holiday promotion temporarily replaced that rhythm with shorter daily windows, as described in Epic’s support documentation.
Most titles used approximately 24-hour windows
From Jötunnslayer: Hordes of Hel through Chivalry 2, the listed dates represent roughly one-day opportunities. Because the changeover occurred at a fixed store reset, a game could disappear when the next day’s tile replaced it; waiting until the end of the date was risky if your local time differed from Pacific Time.
Hogwarts Legacy lasted longer
Hogwarts Legacy was available from December 11 to December 18, 2025, rather than for a single day. Treating every holiday title as a precisely 24-hour offer is therefore incorrect.
The final window was eight days and contained two games
Total War: Three Kingdoms and Wildgate were both offered from January 1 through January 8, 2026. They were not two separate daily reveals; both appeared in the same final claim period.
What was included in Trine Classic Collection?
The December 30 offer was a collection rather than one standalone entry. Its contents were:
- Trine Enchanted Edition
- Trine 2: Complete Story
- Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power
That packaging explains why the event’s individual-game count exceeds the number of claim windows by more than the two-game final offer alone. Each of these three names represented a separately listed game in the collection’s contents.
Can you still claim a missed 2025 holiday game?
No title remains free through its 2025 holiday promotion after its listed window ended. Adding a game to the library during the window preserved permanent access, but merely viewing the tile or intending to claim it did not. If you missed a day, you can still search your Epic library to check whether the claim was completed under your account; otherwise, any later availability would depend on a separate Epic promotion or sale.
The historical schedule does not establish that any particular game will be offered again. Epic’s regular Thursday giveaways continued after January 8, 2026, but a later weekly offer is a new promotion with its own dates and conditions.
Could you claim from a phone or mobile browser?
A mobile browser could be used to sign in and complete the web claim, even though these were PC Epic Games Store giveaways. The entitlement was attached to the Epic account, so the practical benefit of a phone claim was reserving the game for later PC installation rather than playing it on the phone. The same account credentials were needed when installing through the PC launcher.
What did the holiday promotion not require?
You did not have to download a game before its window closed, keep the launcher open, or maintain a subscription. The claim itself was the important step: once the $0.00 transaction completed, the license remained in the library. The promotion also was not a demo period that expired after a few hours of play.
There were no command-line or terminal commands involved. Everything happened through the Epic Games Store website or launcher interface.
Which widely repeated claims about the lineup were wrong?
It was not 17 daily mystery-game reveals
The documented schedule had 16 windows and 17 games. The arithmetic comes from the three games inside Trine Classic Collection and the two games supplied together from January 1–8, not from 17 consecutive one-day reveals.
Every game did not have exactly 24 hours
Hogwarts Legacy’s December 11–18 period was the clear exception. The remaining dates should be read as the listed claim windows, with most of them approximately one day long.
The leaked lineup was not the confirmed schedule
Lists circulating with Outer Wilds, Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition or Batman: Arkham Collection did not match the published historical lineup. The confirmed record instead includes titles such as Disco Elysium – The Final Cut, We Were Here Together, Cassette Beasts, SKALD: Against the Black Priory, Viewfinder, Trine Classic Collection, Chivalry 2, Total War: Three Kingdoms and Wildgate. The comparison is documented by PC Gamer and TechBoltX.
A download was not the same thing as a claim
Installation could be postponed. The entitlement was secured by completing the free checkout, so a player with limited storage or bandwidth could claim first and install later.
A card or paid membership was not listed as a requirement
The documented requirements were an Epic account and enabled two-factor authentication. The checkout total was $0.00, and the available guidance does not make a credit card or subscription a condition of receiving the giveaway.
How should you read the dates if you are checking your account now?
Use the table as a historical checklist rather than as a promise that the tiles are still active. For each title, search the Epic Games Launcher library while signed in to the account used in late 2025 or early 2026. A title appearing in the library indicates that the claim succeeded; an install button can then be used independently of the old promotion dates.
If you are tracking future Epic giveaways, note the difference between the standard Thursday schedule and a holiday event. Holiday promotions can change the cadence, shorten windows or bundle multiple games, so the date and time shown on the live Free Games page take precedence over social-media countdowns or leaked lists.
Why the 2025 list matters for future holiday giveaways
This event illustrates three practical rules. First, count claim windows separately from individual games when a collection or bundle is involved. Second, read the end date for each tile instead of assuming a universal 24-hour limit. Third, complete the $0.00 claim even when you cannot install immediately, because library ownership and local storage are separate decisions.
Those rules are more reliable than rumor-based calendars. The published 2025 record shows that Epic can open with a week-long headliner, move to daily reveals, and finish with a multi-game period while still describing the event as one holiday promotion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim an Epic holiday game without installing the launcher first?
Yes. The web store supports the claim flow, so you can complete the $0.00 transaction in a browser. You will still use the Epic Games Launcher later when you want to install and play the PC title.
What should I do if two-factor authentication blocks my claim?
Enable two-factor authentication on the Epic account, then return to the Free Games page and repeat the checkout. The security requirement applies to the account making the claim, not to the computer where you eventually install the game.
Are the 2025 holiday giveaways playable on consoles?
The promotion recorded here was for PC games in the Epic Games Store. A browser or phone could reserve the entitlement, but the claim itself added the game to an Epic account for later PC installation.
Will a game return if I missed its holiday window?
The 2025 schedule does not promise a repeat offer for any title. A later giveaway or sale would be a separate promotion, so check the live Free Games page and your account library rather than relying on an old holiday calendar.