Xbox Game Pass subscriber count is less than 50% of original target. Reported 30M figure is well below the 77m user goal that Microsoft set for the subscription service for 2026.
Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service currently has around 30 million users, significantly below the 77 million-user target set for 2026. The Wall Street Journal revealed that the service's subscriber base is far from the initial projections, with an insider suggesting approximately 30 million subscribers. This number is a considerable drop from the 34 million members reported in September 2024 by then-Xbox president Sarah Bond.
In response to the underperformance, new CEO Asha Sharma announced significant cuts at Xbox, emphasizing the importance of Game Pass, multi-platform strategies, and a diverse content portfolio. Despite the service's value, it failed to meet growth expectations, leading to challenges in the core business and necessitating a strategic reset for Xbox.
The decline in Game Pass users is not a new phenomenon, as evidenced by a drop from 25 million subscribers at the beginning of 2022 to 22 million shortly after. Microsoft's decision to increase Game Pass prices by 50% in 2025 was later reversed by Sharma, who acknowledged that the service had become too costly for players. This pricing adjustment resulted in improved user acquisition and retention rates, signaling a positive shift in the subscription service's performance.
