Rumor: Game Pass Subs at 33m

According to an article by Tech4Gamers, analysts estimate Game Pass has passed 33 million subscribers, with over half being GP Ultimate subscribers.

That means MS is grossing over $400,000,000 a month off game pass alone ($4.9b/year).

Thoughts? Do you think that's right or wrong? Is that a good subscriber base at this stage?

https://tech4gamers.com/xbox-game-pass-33-million/?fbclid=IwAR28cQtOn2dS5SBGxDgy4IXErl1yMSOdk-oWMQjtAHyZHXh325Jy_Szuyrk

Hard to say if it's accurate or not but, If true, no. That's not impressive. Growth also looks very slow too from what I have seen. It keeps missing growth targets. It was at something like 25 million 18 months ago too.

When MS are looking at subscriber number: they are looking at the likes of netflix. 200 million subscribers. That's what success looks like to MS. That's what Nadella is thinking of when he looks at the Xbox operation.

4.9 billion is not nothing of course (though does that figure just assume everyone is paying the full whack?). but they paid, what 70billion of Acti/Blizz. 7.5 billion for Zenimax. Apparently they are shopping around for more buyouts. In that context the Gamepass sub numbers and the slow growth (especially the slow growth) are not good.

there was 30mil on some former Microsoft workers linkedin last September, so who knows

@osan0: I would have expected it to be a little higher, maybe 40m.

Maybe that will change if/when AB games come yo game pass.

Ironically Gamepass saturation rate seems to stall out at around the same number as the console userbase % which MS wants to abandon and System Wars users claim is niche

My prediction is GP will never surpass the 30-45 mil users base Xbox One managed to attain with Xbox One console sales last generation

Are you sure,some folk think MS pays a billion dollars per year for GP content and only has 218 subscribers each paying £1 per month.

@saint-george: lol NO ONE thinks MS pays a billion dollars for GP content. Where did you get that idea from?

I just had a quick look. Gamepass was launched in 2017 (and it carries over subscribers from Xbox live gold).

So if Gamepass was a console released in 2017 and only sold 33 million units...would that be considered good? 40 million a success?

Given the value proposition on paper and the lack of barriers to entry, if I was MS I would be expecting something closer to switch hardware sales numbers in terms of gamepass subscribers given it's age. It should be much closer too 100 million at this stage.

Bingo

Sarcasm obviously shot over your head kid,there was 2 made up figures in my post..well done for at least spotting one of them...the one that triggered you.

Only 33 mill? It should be higher then that. According the lems here, every PC gamer has a GP sub account.

If those numbers are true, that is very bad. 33 Million subs isn't good, it should be higher than this by now. 50 million subs...at least is what Game Pass subs should be by now.

Pretty impressive. More than I would have thought.

Not good numbers considering they replaced Gold with Gamepass Core.

@osan0: It's not a one time purchase, though. Is 33 million monthly subscriptions.

Rumor and meh.🤷🏽‍♂️

Congrats

I hope GP fails and Spencer gets fired, and MS hires someone who wants to be competitive.

I think it's important to note that the source says that number excludes GamePass Core aka XBL Gold. I think that's pretty good considering GamePass Core probably adds another like 12M more subscribers. That basically puts it in line with PSN.

🤡Rumor🤡

Stop copying me. Enough is enough.

What makes you think Phil is not being competitive? MS is trying to reach a bigger audience. They are diversifying by releasing on Xbox, PC, and Cloud. They are investing in Game Pass and in more games by buying and creating new development studios. Console sales don't matter much anymore when you can reach gamers in different ways.

What kind of a bitchmade person would admit in public that they will never reach nintendo and sony's success?

Cool. They’ve got about three years to get another 67 million to be ok.

The kind of person that is trying to marginalize their company so that an important acquisition gets approved by regulators.

Besides... we all know Jim Cryin was the real bitch during that whole ordeal.

@last_lap: unfortunately, Phil is doing exactly what MS wants. That’s why he’s still there and keeps getting promoted.

Admitting defeat is not being competitive. Thinking of going third party or even exiting gaming as a whole is NOT being competitive.

And why do you even bring Jimbo into this? He was the worst shitter i have seen since Don Mattrick.

Bingo.

On-Topic, i don't think we'll be getting more Game Pass number updates since they combined the service with Xbox Live (GP Core)..

Xbox has already stated that growth has slowed so they're not going to tout numbers and have the internet dissect those numbers into a "bad news" narrative (as evidenced in this thread)..

i personally don't agree with that tactic, just like when Sony started to hide PS Plus numbers..

MS needs to get their shit together if the want to find growth. 2023 was pretty terrible in terms of public perception imo, Redfall, Starfield and Forza have in common being the worse releases ever (excluding 76) from the developers involved. That ain't it.

$400M/month? And they just said Game Pass subs were only 10% of their content revenues.

@lamprey263:

Xbox definitely doesn't make $48B per year. lol

That was their projected percentage. It was like 30% of content and services back in 2021.

@Nonstop-Madness: I don't think that's for year, I'd bet that's the latest data for the quarter, and holiday quarters are always the strongest, whatever the revenue figures are though regardless of whether they say what the Game Pass subscription totals are they'll still say what the revenues are for gaming division are in a couple weeks. We'll have a better idea when the quarterly reports go public.

Last public statement I'm aware of was a few months back saying Game Pass subscriptions netted $230M/month, still not too shabby either.

@BassMan: The only reason you like Spencer is because he throws you Hermits a bone. If Xbox's games weren't on PC you would be port begging like you guys go for Sony's games.

@hardwenzen:Why would I want to copy you, You're a gibberer.

Absolutely am not a gibberer. Never. Not something i look forward to being either.

I like Phil because he is an actual gamer and not just a suit. I am all for Microsoft's strategy of releasing games on multiple platforms and reaching more gamers. Of course I would be port begging as I want all games on PC. Why would I want to play on inferior and redundant console hardware? That is just silly.

Dabear so incredibly desperate to find something positive about his Box🤡

I think it's plausible given the holidays just happened and no doubt anybody grabbing an Xbox probably are trying out Game Pass or being gifted Game Pass. I'll be curious to see where the needles moves once they start dumping all that COD content onto Game Pass.

I feel like gamepass is following a traditional "S" curve. It starts off slowly, then after a while, BAM! Exponential growth here we come. It just going to take some time to move people away from the traditional way of gaming, which is buying and owning, towards renting and possibly buying. Once more and more people try it out, I think they will shift more towards it than anything else. The value of gamepass is just unbeatable, thats all there is to it, plain and simple. Not just value, but pure quality. The games on gamepass put the turds that sony is releasing to shame.

You are salty that Nintendo has bitched slapped the PS5 into last place.

Thats a whole lotta smart cookies out there living the gaming dream. :P

Would be interesting to see how the number increased during the Christmas period.

First off, I clearly stated in my comments that I expected the number to be higher. Beyond that:

• Looking at the Dev Direct
• Looking at the cow meltdown of Dev Direct (especially since those "indiana jones will be on PS5" rumors were debunked).
• Looking at the number 1 played game on Steam (on PC/Xbox and not on PS5)
• Looking at the number 1 selling game on Steam (on PC/Xbox and not on PS5)

I really don't need to look far to find something positive about Xbox.

BTW, how's that first party pipeline for Sony working out for you?

@dabear: How is a game being a best seller and most played on Steam a positive for Xbox?

You're so far gone that soon, you will be considering palworld as an xbox exclusive because its on gp. We lost you, dabear, we really did.

I think that's pretty good. I think some players sub to play a new game(s), finish them and let subscription expire.

Xbox, at best, has "console exclusives". And, before you say "that's not a thing", your messiah Sony brought it back .

Sony isn't doing their best to exit the gaming industry, this is what you need to understand.

Dabear is correct in that Palworld being an overnight sensation and an Xbox console exclusive is a positive for Xbox.

BUT, Dabear never (and doesn't) share the same sentiment when it comes to PlayStation console exclusives. 🤷‍♂️