Game Pass and PS Plus subscriptions are in decline shows latest data

Less people are paying for console-based video game subscriptions than at the same time last year, as it’s made clear Xbox’s Game Pass plans have failed.

It’s been obvious for a while, but now it can be stated plainly: Game Pass has failed to become the killer app for Xbox or anything other than a niche attraction for most people. That’s no doubt part of the complex set of reasons for Microsoft’s recent studio closures but it’s not a problem that is unique to them.

Although Game Pass is far more important to Xbox than PS Plus is to PlayStation, neither subscription service has done as well as expected, despite Game Pass offering excellent value for money and allowing you to play any first party Xbox games for free from day one.

The problem with that though is that not only are not enough people subscribing to make it worthwhile, but Game Pass is devaluing the price of new games – with insiders suggesting that Microsoft is currently contemplating not making Call Of Duty free from day one, despite earlier promises.

None of this information comes from anything Microsoft or Sony has said, since both stopped reporting subscriber numbers some time ago. Microsoft execs, including Satya Nadella, even removed Game Pass targets from the list of things that determine their company bonus.

It’s difficult to say exactly what the problem is though, beyond a general sense of subscription fatigue – given how everything from TV services to cars want you to pay them a recurring fee every month or year.

The specific problem with gaming though, is that it’s becoming clear that even if the games are free at point of use people don’t have time to play them all. As with television, many spend more time deciding what to play than actually playing it, eventually deciding it’s simpler just to buy the small number of games they want each year in a traditional manner.

That’s not really something Xbox could’ve predicted before trying out subscriptions, so it’s not as if they did anything stupid, but they gambled on the concept working out and it’s now clear it hasn’t.

NPD analyst Mat Piscatella has revealed that in March console and PC subscription spending increased only by 1% when compared to April 2023… which in turn was only 2% higher than April 2022.

This is even worse than it sounds as it’s tracking money spent, not number of subscribers, and so once price rises and currency inflation are factored in that means the total number of subscribers has almost certainly gone down. So it’s not that subscriber numbers have plateaued, they’re actually declining.

What’s impossible to tell from this data is whether there’s any significant difference in the decline between Game Pass and PS Plus (and Nintendo Switch Online and things like EA Play and Ubisoft+) but there’s been no suggestion so far that one is doing notably better than the other.

Whether Game Pass is losing Microsoft money directly has been a matter of debate for years but it’s the negative effect on normal game sales which will be the biggest concern at the moment.

That still doesn’t mean Game Pass is in danger of stopping but it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft made some major changes to it in the near future, including reframing its day one promise for at least some titles.

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