Epic Games Store Officially Reveals Its December 23 Free Game

The Epic Games Store has officially launched the seventh free game of its 2025 holiday season giveaway: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The 2019 metroidvania with an optional co-op mode can be claimed for exactly 24 hours, until December 24.

The Epic Games Store’s ongoing holiday giveaway is now in its third week, although daily freebies didn’t begin until last Thursday, December 18. The most recent three titles offered were Blood West, Sorry We’re Closed, and Paradise Killer, in that order.

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Epic Games Store: A Comprehensive List Of Every Free Game It’s Had To Date

Here’s a list of all the games that have been made free on the Epic Games Store. You have until December 23 to get the current free mystery game.

Epic Games Store’s 7th Holiday Season Free Mystery Game Is Now Available

The Epic Games Store’s Paradise Killer giveaway is now officially over, having been replaced with another free title in the form of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. EGS users can add it to their accounts at no cost until December 24, at 8am PT / 11am ET / 5pm CET. While it has previously been playable without a purchase—largely due to multiple stints on Xbox Game Pass—Ritual of the Night had never been given away on the Epic Games Store until today.

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A Brief Intro to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Epic’s December 23 Freebie

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2019 gothic metroidvania designed by Koji Igarashi, a former Konami developer who helped shape the modern Castlevania formula. It is the second entry in the Bloodstained series, which was envisioned as a spiritual successor to Castlevania. As such, Ritual of the Night combines 2D platforming, exploration, and combat, featuring non-linear environments and progression gates tied to specific abilities or equipment. Players are put in control of Miriam, a cursed orphan who absorbs enemy “shards” to acquire a variety of combat abilities and passive bonuses. Beyond the core metroidvania gameplay loop, the second Bloodstained title also offers crafting and character customization.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Is Epic’s First 2025 Holiday Season Freebie with a Co-Op Mode

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night debuted to excellent reviews, earning praise for its rich exploration, distinctive atmosphere, and varied combat and loot systems, among other qualities. The most common criticisms from reviewers involved technical issues and a story seen as generic and cliché-ridden. Even so, these shortcomings did little to detract from the overall experience, as reflected in the game’s 83 average score on OpenCritic. The 2019 metroidvania marks Epic’s first 2025 holiday season freebie to support co-op play, both locally and online. That said, multiplayer isn’t the game’s primary focus, but limited to several bonus modes introduced with the 1.5 update in May 2024. Its co-op experience is called Chaos Mode and draws inspiration from roguelites.

Epic Games Store’s Holiday Season 2025 Giveaway: All the Freebies so Far

EGS 2025 Holiday Giveaway Stats as of December 23

• Total games given away: 7
• Total value of games: $214.93
• Average game value: $30.7
• Average game OpenCritic score: 80.29

With Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night now available to claim, the Epic Games Store’s 2025 holiday giveaway is approaching its halfway mark, with its total value now officially exceeding $200. Based on past patterns, the December 24 title is likely to be another indie game, while the one following it could be a higher-profile release—perhaps not on the scale of Hogwarts Legacy, but closer to its budget than Ritual of the Night‘s. For reference, last Christmas the Epic Games Store gave away Control, while its December 25 giveaway the year before featured The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition. The December 31 title could also be a higher-profile release with at least AA production values, as suggested by Epic’s last two year-end freebies: Ghostrunner and Sifu.

Released

June 18, 2019

ESRB

T For Teen due to Blood, Partial Nudity, Violence

Developer(s)

ArtPlay