Stadia

Stadia just added 35 more free demos, but only 30 new games so far this year

Ben Schoon | Jun 27 2022 - 7:56 am PT

Google Stadia has been full of ups and downs, but one of the bright spots in recent memory has been the platform’s expansion of free game demos. A shining example of what cloud gaming can offer, Stadia has really doubled down on game demos as of late, nearly doubling its catalog in the past week alone.

You can try even more games for free on Stadia

Google Stadia first started rolling out support for free game trials in 2021, and has since expanded the option to many more titles. A few notable games with support for free trials included Risk of Rain 2, Jackbox Party Pack 8, and Humankind.

As spotted on Reddit, though, Google has more than doubled the number of free game demos available on Stadia as of this past Friday. 35 new game demos were added to the library, up from around 25 that were previously available. The expanded list includes:

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion – Play for 30 min
Ben 10: Power Trip – Play for 30 min
Cake Bash – Play for 60 min
Chicken Police – Paint it RED! – Play for 30 min
Chronos: Before the Ashes – Play for 30 min
Darksiders Genesis – Play for 60 min
Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition – Play for 60 min
Darksiders III – Play for 30 min
Destroy All Humans! – Play for 30 min
DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders – Play for 30 min
DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure – Play for 30 min
El Hijo – A Wild West Tale – Play for 30 min
Fast and Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R – Play for 30 min
Get Packed: Fully Loaded – Play for 60 min
Gigantosaurus The Game – Play for 30 min
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure – Play for 30 min
Little Big Workshop – Play for 30 min
Monster Jam Steel Titans – Play for 30 min
Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 – Play for 30 min
My Friend Peppa Pig – Play for 30 min
One Hand Clapping – Play for 30 min
PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay – Play for 30 min
PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls – Play for 30 min
PHOGS! – Play for 60 min
PJ MASKS: HEROES OF THE NIGHT – Play for 30 min
Race With Ryan Road Trip Deluxe Edition – Play for 30 min
Ryan’s Rescue Squad – Play for 30 min
Spitlings – Play for 30 min
SpongeBobSquarePants:Battle for Bikini BottomRehydrated – Play for 30 min
TRANSFORMERS: BATTLEGROUNDS – Complete Edition – Play for 30 min
The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem – Play for 30 min
The Darkside Detective – Play for 60 min
The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark – Play for 60 min
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia – Play for 30 min
Wreckfest – Play for 30 min

Needless to say, it’s a huge list of games that players can try out for free, even without signing up for Stadia at all. You only need a Google account to play. Most of the new demos allow access to the full game for up to 30 minutes before you need to purchase the game, or redeem it on Stadia Pro, to continue playing.

Of course, it comes as little surprise that we’re seeing many more free demos on Stadia as of late. Earlier this year, Google announced a change to how demos work on the platform, effectively making it a one-click option for game publishers to offer a demo of any games already available on Stadia.

More demos in a single day than new games all of this year

While it truly is great to see Stadia doubling down on one of its unique features, it’s important to remember what else is going on with the platform.

That is, the silence regarding new game releases.

With Friday’s release of 35 new game demos, Stadia releases more demos in one day than it has managed to release in new games so far in 2022.

Despite originally promising to release 100 new games by the end of the year, only 30 new titles have come to the platform in 2022, with an especially big lack of major AAA games as we’ve been tracking in our weekly Stadia Changelog column.