Xbox Game Pass Growth Is Slowing Down, Analyst Says

Xbox Game Pass growth is slowing down, a newly emerged analyst report suggests. This bit of unofficial insight into the popular service could help explain why there are currently no up-to-date Xbox Game Pass subscriber figures to speak of.

That wasn't always the case, as Microsoft was initially providing timely updates on the growth of its subscription offering after first launching it in June 2017. The tech giant was especially happy to share Xbox Game Pass subscriber milestones during the pandemic, when such updates became more frequent than its quarterly reports. But the last time it attached an official figure to its flagship service was back in January 2022, when it revealed that Xbox Game Pass hit 25 million users.

Given the subsequent lack of communications, it stands to reason that Microsoft no longer considers the growth rate of Xbox Game Pass something worth boasting about. The latest piece of evidence substantiating that theory comes from London-based analyst and consultancy firm Omdia; speaking to IGN, Omdia Senior Analyst James McWhirter revealed that the British company's estimates put Xbox Game Pass memberships in the ballpark of 33.3 million as of year-end 2023. That figure suggests the platform's 2023 growth rate sat at 13%, two percentage points down compared to the previous year.

Month

Subscribers

Notes

July 2017

460,000

Launch month figure

November 2017

1 million

April 2018

2 million

January 2019

5 million

December 2019

10 million

First reported in April 2020

September 2020

15 million

January 2021

18 million

January 2022

25 million

December 2022

28.97 million

Omdia's estimate

December 2023

33.3 million

Omdia's estimate

While the 10-million subscriber count was first reported in April 2020, a later FTC filing revealed that Xbox Game Pass had already reached this milestone by December 2019.

Omdia's estimate doesn't include subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Core, which replaced Xbox Live Gold back in September 2023. Nevertheless, it does indicate that the annual growth rate of Xbox