Analyst Michael Pachter Makes Stunning Prediction About Xbox Game Pass

Gaming analyst Michael Pachter believes that Xbox Game Pass will reach over 200 million subscribers in the next 10 years. Pachter also highlighted what he says is a common misconception regarding Xbox Game Pass' current subscriber numbers.

The future of Xbox has seemed a bit uncertain lately after Microsoft announced its new multi-platform strategy, in which some of the platform's high-profile games are to be released on competing platforms. So far,Sea of Thieves andHi-Fi Rush represent the biggest Xbox games that are part of this strategy, but recent rumors claim that many more Xbox titles will make the jump as well. While fans are surprised and sometimes worried by this shift, Xbox has emphasized that it will continue making hardware and supporting its own ecosystem.

Pachter believes that Xbox will continue to thrive going into the future, namely its Game Pass subscription service. In Pachter's latest episode of Pachter Factor posted to YouTube, he stated that Game Pass will reach 200 million subscribers within the next decade, citing Xbox's complete commitment to its success as a partial reason. He also said that previous claims of Xbox counting Gold members (now called Game Pass Core) as Game Pass subscribers are false and that Xbox's total subscriber count for Game Pass does not include Gold/Core individuals.

In 2023, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed that Game Pass costs over $1 billion a year to maintain, with much of this money going to third-party studios that participate in the service. While this might seem like a surprising amount of money, Microsoft clearly believes the investment is well worth it.

It's very likely that Game Pass isn't going anywhere anytime soon, with first-party Xbox studios like Bethesda, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, 343 Industries, The Coalition, and more expected to release day-one games for the service in the future. As for more current news, Game Pass' April additions include third-party titles like Ark: Survival Ascended, F1