I’m not gonna be the first to say it, but s**t is expensive, guys. It’s pretty bad. Prices keep going up and most of the time we have to just eat it. What am I gonna do, not drive to work? If you want to watch The Great British Bake Off, Netflix has you over a barrel. But consumers still have some power, and they will prioritize what they have to. This is how Xbox Game Pass can shed a reported “millions” of subscribers following a drastic price increase.
This (reported by Kotaku) comes via Xbox’s own chief strategy officer during an interview at Summer Games Fest, as relayed by none other than Geoff Keighley. As Kotaku noted, the actual number of subscribers Game Pass had prior to the 2025 price increases was not known. The belief is somewhere around 35 million users. Xbox had raised the price on its Ultimate tier subscription in October of 2025 by 50 percent. The loss of “millions” of subscribers might explain why in April of this year, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma lowered the increase by 25%.
Right now, Xbox Game Pass has three tiers for console users as well as a separate PC-only tier. The Ultimate pass, the highest tier which saw the major price increase, is currently $22.99 per month. That includes, per the Xbox website, 500+ games. Compare that with PlayStation Plus Premium tier, which currently has a price of $19.99 per month. These seem like minor differences, but if you’re already paying for a million different services and the prices all keep going up, it’s not surprising that given a huge increase, a number of them deem Xbox one to cut.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.