Xbox announced a remarkable 50% price increase to Game Pass this week, underlining an accusation it’s so frequently rebuffed – that the service is simply not sustainable. Offsetting that, overall US video game subscription spend increased just 16% year-over-year during the month of Black Ops 6’s launch. PlayStation, to its credit, repeatedly said that giving away full-price first-party games as part of a subscription was simply not sustainable. Microsoft hasn’t provided an update on the total number of Game Pass subscribers since 2024, when it revealed it had 34 million active subscribers. It’s worth noting that it rebranded Xbox Live as Game Pass to give the service a significant shot in the arm.