Xbox Game Pass growth is ‘slowing down’ on console, claims Phil Spencer

Xbox Game Pass growth on console is “slowing down,” according to Microsoft‘s head of gaming Phil Spencer.

Speaking at WSJ Tech Live (transcribed by The Verge journalist Tom Warren), Spencer said that while the company is seeing the PC version of Game Pass experience “incredible growth,” the console side of the business is starting to slow.

“I’ve seen growth slow down, mainly because at some point you’ve reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe,” he said.

As of January 2022, Game Pass has over 25 million subscribers, according to Microsoft. The company recently claimed as part of the UK’s investigation into its proposed Activision acquisition that it has an installed base of 63 million consoles.

In the same interview, Spencer claimed that Xbox Game Pass is “10-15% of (its) overall revenue” and that the service is profitable for the company.

The head of gaming also suggested that Xbox consoles, games and subscriptions may increase in price in the future.

Both Microsoft and PlayStation have in the past said they don’t believe subscriptions will ever be the dominant model in video games.

While the console portion of Game Pass  may be slowing down, Microsoft reported significant momentum for the subscription service on PC this week.

Speaking during a web call on Tuesday (transcribed by VGC) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that Game Pass usage growth “across all platforms driven by the strength off console.”

He said: “PC Game Pass subscriptions increased 159% year-over-year, and with cloud gaming, we’re transforming how games are distributed, played and viewed. More than 20 million people have used the service to stream games to date.”

It was reported earlier this month that the service generated around $2.9 billion in revenue, just on console, in 2021. 

As spotted by Tweaktown, a lengthy report by Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard included a small table revealing the information.

Further reading

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According to the table, of which CADE says the source is Microsoft itself, the Xbox company saw an income of $2.9 billion worldwide from “game subscription services for consoles”, meaning Xbox Game Pass.

In the same talk at WSJ Tech Live, the Xbox boss suggested that Xbox consoles, games and subscriptions may increase in price in the future.