Microsoft Had 33.3 Million Xbox Game Pass Subscribers At the End of 2023, Games Analyst Estimates

18.01.2024 - 14:23 / wccftech.com / Phil Spencer / Aernout van de Velde / Xbox Game

Microsoft had around a total of 33.3 million Xbox Game Pass Subscribers at the end of 2023.

At least, that's what London-based independent analyst and consultancy firm Omdia estimates, as reported by IGN in an article about Microsoft's Xbox ecosystem strategy. Microsoft has long stopped reporting Xbox hardware sales data, and last year, the company also seemingly stopped reporting Game Pass numbers. As mentioned by Omdia senior game analyst James McWhirter, Xbox Game Pass adoption is slowing, and excluding the core tier, total Game Pass subscribers were estimated at 33.3 million at the end of last year.

Related Story New Xbox System Update Aims to Resolve Baldur’s Gate 3 Save Game Issues But Players Aren’t Happy

“We’re seeing slowing adoption of Xbox Game Pass even though Microsoft will claim otherwise thanks to the repositioning of Xbox Live Gold as Xbox Game Pass Core,” the analyst told IGN. McWhirter continued, “Our forecast estimates total Xbox Game Pass subscriptions (excluding Core/Live Gold) to be at 33.3 million at the end of 2023, which represents subscriber growth of just 13% - down from 15% in 2022. Notably, over half (55%) are currently on the device-agnostic Ultimate tier.”

Whether this is an accurate number remains uncertain, but back in September of last year, the LinkedIn profile of Xbox senior marketing director Craig McNary mentioned (via @Bogorad222) over 30 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers as of August 2023.

Interestingly enough, two years before, in September of 2021, 2K Games boss Straus Zelnick suggested that Microsoft had about 30 million subscribers as well. The also-present Xbox boss didn't comment on this number, but merely referred to the officially-sharted 18 million figure as released back in January of 2021. We've included a transcription of the convo between Zelnick and Spencer as part of the Yahoo Finance Fireside Chat back then below:

Strauss Zelnick: Phil didn't pitch his own service, which is impressive, given he could have... but you've got around 30 million [Xbox Game Pass] subs Phil, right? Something like that?

Phil Spencer: The last public number we announced was 18 [million].

Zelnick: Oh, for some reason I thought...

Host: But it's really 30?

Zelnick: It's more than 18. Anyhow, the point is, it's a big number.

What are your thoughts about this estimated Game Pass number? Is it accurate? Do you believe that the adoption rate of Microsoft's subscription service is slowing? Hit the comments below.