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Xbox Game Pass subscribers up by 50% since April

Xbox Game Pass subscribers up by 50% since April

The number of people paying for Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service has risen by a whopping 50 per cent since April.

Alongside its huge new about the purchase of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media, the Big M revealed that Game Pass now boasted 15m subscribers. As of March 31st, 2020, the company said that the service had 10m users, meaning it has attracted just under one million new users each month since.

This will in part be driven by the continued coronavirus pandemic which has seen people encouraged to stay at home in order to help slow the spread of the virus. It's also likely due to Microsoft adding big titles into the scheme, as well as the Big M including access to its xCloud streaming platform in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier. How many people are subscribing for this level of the service isn't public information.

Earlier in September, the company also said that it was partnering with Electronic Arts to give its Game Pass Ultimate subscribers access to the EA Play service, too.

There's been a huge amount of excitement around the next console generation, too, which is likely helping subscriptions, as are Microsoft's continued investments in development talent. Most recently, the company acquired eight studios with its purchase of ZeniMax Media.

Game Pass was originally revealed back in 2017 for the Xbox One console but came to PC in August 2019. Earlier this month, Microsoft said that it was increasing the cost of the subscription service on PC from its trial rate of $4.99 per month to $9.99.


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.