- A new report reveals Xbox Game Pass has failed to meet expectations, falling short of 40 million subscribers.
- The initial 77 million goal was revealed during the investigations surrounding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
- Xbox Game Pass reportedly lost millions of subscribers after the recent price hikes and changes in tiers.
Xbox Game Pass has long been hailed as the “holy grail” of subscription-based gaming. However, it looks like the subscription service is failing to meet Microsoft’s ambitious expectations, with a new report revealing that Game Pass is missing its intended goal by over 40 million subscribers.
Xbox Game Pass Was Aiming for Double the Subscribers It Has in July 2026
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Xbox Game Pass currently sits at around 30 million monthly subscribers. While that would be a massive number for any company, it is nowhere close to the internal target of 77 million subscribers that Game Pass was aiming for. This was revealed in documents revealed during the legal proceedings surrounding Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.
Former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer had stated during the investigation that the projections revealed undersell the number of subscribers Game Pass was supposed to reach. Further, he revealed that if Game Pass failed to meet these projections by FY27, Microsoft would exit the gaming business. Tackling this, Phil Spencer has stated: “I can fairly safely say that if we do not make more progress than this off of console, we would exit the gaming business. If this were the outcome, I don’t believe we’d still be in the business.”
It is important to remember that the Wall Street Journal report comes on the heels of the recent round of layoffs at Xbox, which has led to 3,200 jobs being terminated in FY27. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma cited the slowing growth of Game Pass as one of the leading causes behind the recent cuts.
In early 2024, Game Pass had hit 34 million subscribers. However, with the Game Pass price hikes and changes in tiers, the service has had a less than favourable year. Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball even stated earlier this year that the recent price hikes caused the subscription service to lose “millions of subscribers.”
With the recent layoffs and now the revelation of Game Pass not performing well enough, it looks like Microsoft’s gaming front is on a streak of bad luck. As developers and fans recover from the constant blows like the recent layoffs and Xbox console price increases, it remains to be seen what’s in the cards for Game Pass and Microsoft’s gaming sector as a whole.
Are you an active subscriber to Xbox Game Pass? What do you think about the new developments? Tell us in the comments below!
