Xbox Game Pass subscribers reportedly at 30 million, down from a high of 34-35 million

Q: How does removing day-and-date Call of Duty releases from Game Pass Ultimate affect the value of the subscription and what editions of Call of Duty are still included, if any?

Removing day-and-date Call of Duty releases from Game Pass Ultimate lowers the subscription’s value proposition that had driven add-on subscribers, prompting Microsoft to cut the monthly price from $29.99 to $22.99 to reduce churn. New Call of Duty titles will no longer launch day one on Game Pass Ultimate, but older Call of Duty games remain available on lower tiers (per Related 3: New Call of Duty games won't come to Game Pass Premium, older games still remain on middle tier).

Q: What impact will the return to console-exclusive launches (e.g., Gears of War E-Day, Clockwork Revolution) have on Game Pass availability across Xbox, PC, and cloud?

The article says Microsoft is embracing console exclusives again to boost hardware value and confirms Gears of War E-Day (2026) and Clockwork Revolution (2027) as console-only. It does not state how those console-exclusive launches will affect Game Pass availability across Xbox, PC, or cloud, so this question cannot be answered from this article.

Q: Did the subscriber drop occur immediately after the October 2025 price hike or over a longer period, and which TweakTown analyses track the churn timeline?

The article says it is hard to know exactly when the drops happened and that cancellations during the October 2025 price hike period seem likely, so the subscriber loss was not definitively immediate but occurred around that period. TweakTown analyses tracking the churn timeline are the piece reporting the October 2025 +50% price hike and lost subscribers (linked in the article) and the earlier analysis that Game Pass may have broken 35 million (both cited within the primary article).

Q: How did Black Ops 6’s launch influence short-term subscriber adds versus long-term retention according to Microsoft and TweakTown reporting?

According to Microsoft (as quoted in the article), Black Ops 6's launch produced a large, immediate boost in Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day, setting a record for day one subscriber growth. TweakTown reporting and the article say that despite that short-term spike, Game Pass later lost millions of subscribers after the October 2025 price hike, indicating weaker long-term retention.

Reports indicate Game Pass has potentially lost 4-5 million subscribers, showing how much the +50% price hike impacted the service's overall user base.

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Derek Strickland

Senior Gaming Editor

Published Jul 7, 2026 7:57 AM CDT
Updated Jul 7, 2026 9:51 AM CDT

2 minutes & 15 seconds read time

TL;DR: Xbox Game Pass reportedly dropped from around 34-35 million subscribers to 30 million after a 50% price increase to $29.99 monthly. Microsoft later reduced the price to $22.99 to curb cancellations, removed day-one Call of Duty releases, and plans new console exclusives to enhance hardware value.

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Xbox Game Pass could have lost as many as 4-5 million subscribers following the price hike to $29.99 per month, new reports indicate.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers reportedly at 30 million, down from a high of 34-35 million 3

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Microsoft is making radical changes to its Xbox games division, and new Game Pass subscriber counts were revealed in the news fallout. Microsoft's game service has lost multiple millions of subscribers, and sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Game Pass is currently at 30 million subscribers.

Our tracking data shows that Game Pass could have lost as many as 5 million subscribers following the price hike. In October 2025, right before Black Ops 7's release onto the service, Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate by +50% from $19.99 to $29.99 per month. There are always fluctuations in subscription services, so it's hard to know exactly when the drops happened, yet the price hike was widely disliked by fans so cancellations during this period seem likely.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers reportedly at 30 million, down from a high of 34-35 million 2

As for the numbers, last year we found evidence that Game Pass may have broken 35 million subscribers at some point.

Given the growth trajectory of Game Pass throughout the years, we estimate that the service could have gone from the confirmed 34 million mark to 35 million around the Q2 2025 period, which coincides with Holiday 2024, and the release of Black Ops 6 right into the online subscription.

As per Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Black Ops 6 helped tack-on a bunch of Game Pass subscribers:

"Last week's launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day. Unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year over year."

Microsoft has confirmed that it lost millions of Xbox Game Pass subscribers, but did not disclose an exact value.

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma helped stabilize Game Pass subscription churn by reducing the monthly price from $29.99 down to $22.99, which has proven to be more manageable for players. The trade-off is that Call of Duty, which may have led to subscription growth in the aforementioned period (and those before), has been removed as a day-and-date release from Game Pass Ultimate.

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How does removing day-and-date Call of Duty releases from Game Pass Ultimate affect the value of the subscription and what editions of Call of Duty are still included, if any?

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What impact will the return to console-exclusive launches (e.g., Gears of War E-Day, Clockwork Revolution) have on Game Pass availability across Xbox, PC, and cloud?

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Did the subscriber drop occur immediately after the October 2025 price hike or over a longer period, and which TweakTown analyses track the churn timeline?

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How did Black Ops 6’s launch influence short-term subscriber adds versus long-term retention according to Microsoft and TweakTown reporting?

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The company is also embracing console exclusives again in an attempt to boost the value of its hardware, and two games have been confirmed so far: Gears of War E-Day in 2026, and Clockwork Revolution in 2027.