Xbox Game Pass apparently lost \u201cmillions of subscribers\u201d when it raised its prices by 50 percent last fall, according to Xbox\u2019s chief strategy officer, Matthew Ball.<\/p>\n
This comes from an interview that The Game Business\u2018 Chris Dring did with Ball at Summer Game Fest, with the quote being reposted by Geoff Keighley earlier today:<\/p>\n
Matthew Ball says Xbox shed \u201cmillions of subscribers\u201d when the Gamepass price increased 50 percent in Fall 2025. pic.twitter.com\/ESCr1iOEV8<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) June 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n We unfortunately don\u2019t yet have the full context of this quote, nor do we know how many subscribers exactly were lost. In mid-2025, it was thought that the service had over 35 million subscribers<\/a>, though that number was never officially confirmed. The service was confirmed to be at 34 million subscribers<\/a> in February of 2024.<\/p>\n Last October, Xbox increased the price of its Game Pass Ultimate plan by 50 percent<\/a>, alongside a rework of its cheaper Game Pass tiers. This move also took place just a little over a year after it raised prices in 2024<\/a>. The loss of millions of subscribers explains why new CEO Asha Sharma dropped the price<\/a> (though not back to 2025 levels) this past April, alongside the announcement that future Call of Duty games would no longer launch into the service.<\/p>\n Xbox Game Pass has had a pretty steep fall from grace over the years, having initially enjoyed wide popularity as a relatively inexpensive service with a large number of good and desirable games on it, but gradually becoming less and less appealing amid slow price increases and a slower drip of alluring games. It\u2019s still getting a lot of really solid new games<\/a> added to it every month, but has yet to return to the heights of a few years ago when it was essentially the main reason to own an Xbox, largely due to the price.<\/p>\n