Wall Street Journal data confirms that the service hasn’t been growing for several years and, after raising prices, lost millions of users. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma acknowledged the miscalculation and lowered prices in April, but hasn’t yet managed to regain its audience.
But the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Behind Game Pass’s stagnation lie systemic problems: dissatisfied developers, questionable quality of exclusives, and strategic mistakes that Microsoft is correcting as it goes. We’ll take a closer look at why the subscription service hasn’t lived up to its ambitions—and whether it has a future. A full table with a timeline of pricing and churn is below.
Table of Contents
What happened to Game Pass—from 34 million to 30 million in a year and a half
In February 2024, Microsoft reported 34 million Game Pass subscribers. Back then, the service seemed unsinkable: in the wake of its deal with Activision Blizzard, the company promised to integrate Call of Duty into the subscription from day one. But by mid-2026, the number had dropped to approximately 30 million—and this wasn’t a one-time correction, but a trend.
Price increases and the loss of millions of players
In September 2025, Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate from $17 to $30 per month—a jump of almost 76%. The results were immediate: according to analysts, at least 4-5 million users abandoned the service in the first two months. Players exploded on social media, demanding a rollback, but the company remained silent until April 2026.
Management Change and Return to Old Pricing
In March 2026, Phil Spencer stepped down as head of Xbox and was replaced by Asha Sharma, the former president of operations. She quickly revised the pricing policy: Ultimate dropped to $23, and PC Game Pass to $14. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sharma admitted: “We overestimated the elasticity of demand. Game Pass is not growing at the rate we expected.” But the price cuts didn’t reverse the outflow—subscriptions stagnated at 30 million, with zero growth.
Why developers are criticizing Game Pass: “a factory of mediocre content”
Thomas Mahler, head of Moon Studios (Ori), put it sternly back in 2024: “Game Pass is turning games into junk food. Developers are making pennies, and users are getting used to subscribing to games rather than buying them—and the quality is declining.” Other indie studios supported him, but until 2026, these voices were on the fringes. Now, with the service’s growth stalled, criticism is becoming louder.
Mahler himself compared the subscription to “communism in the gaming industry”—everyone pays the same, while large corporations profit by squeezing the maximum out of the catalog. And while Microsoft denies these accusations, the fact remains: the number of high-end exclusives in Game Pass has declined—instead of major blockbusters, the subscription is being filled with mid-budget projects that fail to retain an audience. The most paradoxical moment: Call of Duty was released on Game Pass on its release day in the fall of 2024, but that didn’t stop its decline. Why? Microsoft itself announced that new COD games would no longer be included in the subscription at launch—a decision made in May 2026. It turns out that the game’s main selling point never became a growth driver, and now it’s been completely withdrawn. Fall Timeline: Price and Subscriber Chart
The table is based on WSJ data, official Microsoft reports, and management statements. The figures through April 2026 are estimates, as the company has stopped publishing quarterly statistics.
What’s next: Xbox’s new strategy and subscription prospects
Asha Sharma announced a change of course: Game Pass will no longer be Xbox’s “primary goal”—the focus is shifting to cross-platform and cloud gaming. In May 2026, she stated: “We’re not chasing subscriber numbers at any cost. Retention is more important to us.” However, analysts are skeptical: if the subscriber base doesn’t exceed 40 million by 2027, Microsoft may reconsider the subscription model itself, even shutting it down.
Meanwhile, during the FTC court hearings, Phil Spencer suggested that if Xbox’s subscriber base falls below 40 million, it could exit the gaming business. Now these words sound prophetic.
Personally, I compared the dates and concluded that Microsoft’s biggest mistake isn’t the price, but the lack of consistent hits. When a subscription is filled with average games, even a low price won’t save it. Players vote with their wallets, and they chose to purchase individual titles over unlimited access.
