Xbox Game Pass now has 34 million ‘fully paid’ subscribers

Xbox has confirmed that there are currently 34 million players subscribed to Xbox Game Pass.

The number was mentioned briefly during an announcement that Diablo 4 will be the first Activision Blizzard game coming to Game Pass, with Xbox president Sarah Bond noting that “now the 34 million Game Pass members can all enjoy the fantastic experience of Diablo 4“.

However, in an interview for journalist Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter, Xbox head Phil Spencer elaborated more on the figure, noting that it isn’t simply counting players on free trials or other promotional deals.

“That’s fully paid,” Spencer explained. “So those are not promotional players. Those are people, fully paid subs.”

Totilo then asked Spencer if the numbers were being cooked somewhat by last year’s rebranding of Xbox Live Gold to Xbox Game Pass Core, essentially turning all Xbox Gold subscribers into Game Pass subscribers.

Spencer replied that the number of players who had Xbox Live Gold but not Game Pass and could now be added to the count was “a pretty small number”, and that the growth in subscriber numbers can be attributed more to players on PC and the cloud.

“When there’s a fixed number of console players on the planet you’re not going to grow Game Pass forever by shipping just on consoles,” he explained. “So we’re seeing really significant growth on PC, which is great, and cloud.”

Sony has stopped revealing the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers it has, with Push Square noting last year that the decision seemingly coincided with a price hike for the service in September 2023.

The company’s previous financial report for Q2 for its current fiscal year only provided a figure from the previous fiscal year, which was around 50 million. In its recent financial report for Q3, it again failed to provide numbers, but noted that there had been “a slight year-on-year decrease in the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers”.