Xbox Game Pass expected to make $5.5 billion by 2025, analysis says
Microsoft reported 34 million subscribers of Game Pass earlier this year
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Key notes
- Xbox Game Pass, launched in 2017, now has 34 million subscribers and is projected to earn $5.5 billion by next year.
- Despite price hikes, enthusiasm remains high due to new offerings like the Xbox Game Pass Standard.
- The FTC criticizes the new tier as a “degraded product” and accuses Microsoft of using its market power to push users to pricier options.
Since its debut in 2017, the Xbox Game Pass subscription plans continue attracting more users. It stays relevant, especially after Microsoft finalized its Activision deal, as Game Pass offers big titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 from day one.
Now, according to an analysis by Ampere, a market-leading data and analytics firm, the Xbox Game Pass is expected to make $5.5 billion by the end of next year.
“Ampere estimates that global Game Pass ARPU [average revenue per user] across all service tiers will increase by 5.4% in 2024 and that is expected to jump to an increase of 15.3% in 2025,” the analysis further reads.
Earlier this year, Microsoft mentioned that the Xbox Game Pass has reached a 34 million subscribers milestone, despite slow growth on consoles. Two years ago, the Redmond tech giant reported 25 million.
Despite recent reports that Xbox is raising its Game Pass Ultimate plan price, users’ enthusiasm over the subscription service does not seem to waver. That is because the green console camp also launched yet another plan, the Xbox Game Pass Standard, which excludes day-one game releases but includes multiplayer access.
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), however, sees things a bit differently. In a recent court document, the regulators said that the new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier is a “degraded product” and criticized the recent price hikes.
The FTC is also accusing Microsoft of pushing users towards more expensive or less valuable service options, which they argue is harmful to consumers and indicative of Microsoft’s market power post-merger.
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