Microsoft spent years positioning Xbox Game Pass as the future of gaming. But according to a new report from Bloomberg, the service has fallen well short of the ambitious goals Xbox originally set for it. The report claims Xbox executives targeted 77 million Game Pass subscribers by the end of fiscal 2026. Instead, the service reportedly sits at around 30 million subscribers today, which is less than half of what Microsoft had hoped to achieve.
Game Pass reportedly peaked earlier than expected
The numbers become even more striking when compared with recent history. Bloomberg reports that Game Pass now has around four million fewer subscribers than when Microsoft last publicly discussed the service in 2024, suggesting growth has slowed rather than accelerated. According to former Xbox employees cited in the report, concerns had already begun spreading internally that Game Pass subscriber growth had peaked.
Microsoft also tried adjusting its pricing. Last October, the company increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate by roughly 50%, before later reducing it to $23 per month in April. The hope was that the premium tier would strengthen Xbox’s broader content ecosystem and eventually drive higher game sales.
Even Call of Duty wasn’t an easy decision
One of the report’s more surprising revelations is that even within Xbox, not everyone was convinced about putting Call of Duty on Game Pass from day one. Bloomberg reports that several employees are worried that giving away one of gaming’s biggest annual releases through a subscription could cannibalize full-price sales, especially given that the franchise has historically been one of the industry’s strongest retail performers.
Those concerns weren’t entirely unfounded. According to Bloomberg, 82% of Black Ops 6 sales still came from PlayStation, despite Microsoft owning Activision. The report suggests Xbox’s subscription strategy didn’t translate into the kind of platform advantage many inside the company had hoped for, even after one of the biggest acquisitions in gaming history.
The report doesn’t suggest Game Pass is going anywhere. But with subscriber growth reportedly flattening despite blockbuster acquisitions and day-one releases, the figures offer a clearer picture of why Microsoft may now be reassessing parts of its gaming business after years of betting so heavily on subscriptions
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
