It has been a while since Microsoft officially shared the number of Game Pass subscribers. So we can only rely on indirect data to assess whether the service is growing.
The information about Game Pass having over 30 million subscribers comes from Craig McNary, senior director of global brand and integrated marketing at Xbox. It was spotted by Timur222, who regularly shares interesting details in publicly available resumes.
According to McNary’s LinkedIn profile, he was responsible for launching and growing Xbox Game Pass to “over 30M members through measured full funnel campaigns, GTM planning, SKU expansion to PC, iOS, and Android, and partnerships with Alienware, EA Play, Spotify, and Disney+ to drive off console growth and deliver over 1B in customer lifetime value.”
While the 30 million mark looks solid, it is still unconfirmed by Microsoft. It is also unclear whether this number includes PC Game Pass, given that McNary specifically mentions the Xbox version of the subscription service. Plus, it likely doesn’t count Xbox Live Gold users who were converted to Xbox Game Pass Core members earlier this month.
UPDATE: McNary’s LinkedIn profile no longer contains information about the 30 million mark. Following the news, Microsoft also told Windows Central that the previously disclosed 25 million milestone should be referred to as the “official tally.”
The last time Microsoft officially disclosed Game Pass stats was in January 2022, when the service surpassed 25 million subscribers. The latest data was revealed as part of Microsoft’s fight with the UK’s Comptetition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the Activision Blizzard acquisition. In October 2022, Sony submitted its response to the regulator, claiming that “Game Pass has 29 million subscribers to Xbox Game Pass Console and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and is expected to grow substantially in the future.”
So it seems legit that Game Pass could have over 30 million subscribers. The only question is when Microsoft itself will share relevant information with the public.