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Xbox claims Game Pass subscribers play 40% more games

Xbox claims Game Pass subscribers play 40% more games

Subscribers for Xbox's Game Pass service apparently play 40 per cent more games.

That's according to the European lead for Microsoft's ID@Xbox indie scheme Agostino Simonetta - as reported by GI.biz - who reportedly told attendees at the Games Industry Investment Summit that subscribers were playing more titles both inside and outside Game Pass.

Meanwhile, 91 per cent of users had played releases that they otherwise would not have with subscribers also playing 30 per cent more different types of games before signing up to Game Pass. This is likely due to the fact that there's barrier to entry with these titles on a subscription service.

Earlier this year, Microsoft's head of planning for Game Pass Matt Percy said that subscribers spent 20 per cent more time playing games and were trying 40 per cent new titles.

"People that join the subscription are way more engaged," said Simonetta.

"Well, they have a lot of free games to play - but actually they're way more engaged outside the subscription. They go out to stores and buy more games than they did before they joined."

He continued: "If you look at the video subscription service, you go in for the blockbuster and then you spend hours watching documentaries or stand-up comedy," he says. "We see Game Pass as an opportunity to broaden the horizon of the fans, so they're going to go and discover that, 'In ten years, I've never played a horror game, but guess what? I tried one and now I'm developing a taste for the genre'."

Microsoft announced Game Pass back in June 2017 with a PC version of the subscription service rolling out in August of this year. In the past, the boss of Xbox Phil Spencer said that Game Pass was how the Big M reached two billion gamers and that it is increasing sales for titles featured in the service.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.