Xbox Reaches Milestone – Should Sony Be Concerned?

Microsoft has ignited the turbo in the gaming segment. Not only did they recently announce plans to buy well-known publisher Activision Blizzard, but now there are new figures for Xbox Game Pass that prove that Microsoft shouldn’t be underestimated.

Xbox Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers

The champagne corks probably popped recently at Xbox. As can be seen from an official blog entry, Microsoft is apparently in negotiations with Activision Blizzard and is expected to take over the group in the course of the 2023 fiscal year.

But that was not the only cause for celebration. Because, as the same entry also shows, Microsoft has managed to reach an important milestone with the Xbox Game Pass: More than 25 million subscribers use the service currently according to the statements of the company (source: Microsoft). For classification: In April 2020 there were just under 10 million, in January 2021 there were already 18 million paying users. So Microsoft has managed to increase the number of Game Pass subscribers by more than a third within the last year (source: extra).

Also coming soon to Game Pass – the new co-op shooter Rainbow Six Extraction:

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PlayStation Plus: What about Sony’s subscription service?

Although Xbox has managed to make a real comeback over the past few years, they are still a long way from the current PlayStation Plus subscription numbers. As of September 2021, 47.2 million PlayStation players subscribed to the service, almost double the number of users compared to Xbox Game Pass.

Nevertheless, Sony should not rest on its laurels. Because a look at the statistics shows that the Xbox Game Pass was able to attract significantly more new users than PlayStation Plus over the same period. In the last year and a half in particular, the PlayStation service seems to have reached its growth limit. In June 2020, 45 million users would already be part of the subscription service (source: extra).

So if Xbox manages to continue to increase the number of Game Pass users so quickly, the company could soon have caught up with its direct competitor. Especially since the takeover of Activision Blizzard could give the Game Pass a big boost again. We’re excited to see how Microsoft and Sony play their cards in the coming months.