Xbox Game Pass grows to 34 million subscribers – with a big caveat

For multiple console generations now, Microsoft has opted not to share any sales figures for its Xbox systems, instead choosing to focus on Game Pass subscribers. That said, we’ve had no official update on total users in over 2 years. Finally, Microsoft has revealed that Game Pass has now grown to 34 million subscribers – with one glaring caveat.

During Microsoft’s recent Xbox podcast – which saw Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty take centre stage to discuss the future of the platform – the execs revealed that Game Pass subscribers had grown to a total of 34 million users.

While an impressive figure when stripped of all context, the previous announcement that Game Pass had reached 25 million subscribers came all the way back in January 2022 – two years ago now.

Drawing in 9 million additional subscribers is no easy task, even over the course of two years.

That said, with last year’s revamp of the service seeing Xbox Live Gold changed to Game Pass Core (and Microsoft confirming that the 34 million figure includes Game Pass Core members), it seems as though the total number of standard Game Pass subscribers may have declined – assuming the most recent report of 11.7 million Xbox Live Gold members in 2022 carried over following the revamp.

Of course, being a business, Microsoft is incentivised to present the most favourable version of the truth for the sake of shareholders and the like.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of this updated figure? Did Game Pass grow or is its shrinkage being obfuscated? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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