Xbox Game Pass users who’ve been subscribed for a while are probably familiar with how mercurial the service’s roller coaster has been in the past year, with recent current-gen console price hikes being only one of the ways that both PlayStation and Xbox have aggravated and discouraged their respective playerbases lately. PlayStation and Xbox are in similarly hot water right now, to say the least, even if it seems, at times, like they’re in two completely separate bodies of water.
Game Pass subscriptions for 2026 altogether have reportedly been underwhelming, somewhat unsurprisingly. As fans hear this news, they aren’t necessarily in shock and are sharing their thoughts on why they believe that Game Pass isn’t the hot subscription service that Microsoft wishes it was.
According to the Wall Street Journal, as shared on a ResetEra thread, Game Pass currently has roughly 30 million subscribers. This is apparently far lower than Microsoft had projected or imagined, and Reddit users like Legend_of_dragoon- are bewildered by the fact that Microsoft believed its Game Pass subscriptions would reach 77 million this year.
User L11mbm writes, “77 million? Microsoft can’t even get that many Xbox consoles sold across a single generation anymore, how the hell are they going to convince that many people to pay for Game Pass?” Moreover, user SouthIsland48 makes an interesting point: “Good games drop MAYBE once a month, more like one every few months. And half of those are gated properties of competitors of Xbox.”
Fans have gathered statistics regarding how many subscribers Xbox Game Pass has had in the last few years in order to determine a base of reference and comparison for this year’s 30 million, and have come to the conclusion that this year’s number of subscribers was five million less than last year’s.
User Darkone539 and many others are in consensus about what they think was the reason for this year’s lower number of subscribers: “Raising the price really did bleed millions of subs.”
Many fans are in agreement because they can anecdotally attest to price hikes being why they, personally, unsubscribed from Game Pass. However, others are discussing how the service isn’t worthwhile to them in general.
For example, user SkyHoglet has regaled fans with a tale of how they originally subscribed to Game Pass with the notion that they’d play dozens of games, when in reality they only ended up investing time in one game, No Man’s Sky, and realized their money would be better spent on one game that they knew they could commit their time to, rather than a monthly Xbox Game Pass subscription where the true value of service would be going to waste. This is likely the case with many users, and it will be fascinating to see if Microsoft has a plan to bounce back in a big way.
- Number of Devices Concurrently
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Standard subscription plan allows two accounts playing at once, with four accounts playing at once on Friends & Family plan
- Highest Resolution
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1440p streaming
- Number of Accounts
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~35 million subscribers
- Compatibility
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Xbox Series X|S, PC, ROG Xbox Ally, Android, iOS, Samsung & LG TVs, Meta Quest, Web Browser
- Price Per Month
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Essential $9.99 | Premium $14.99 | Ultimate $29.99
- Price per year
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12-month membership codes only available at certain retailers
A rotating catalog of games reshapes how players discover new worlds, between large scale blockbusters, inventive indie projects, and long running favorites, all without paying full price for each title. New first party releases often arrive the moment they launch to grant members immediate access, while different tiers determine online features, cloud access, and discounts.
