Xbox Game Pass lost "millions of subscribers" after the service jacked prices by 50 percent in October 2025, Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball confirmed during a live taping with The Game Business this week. The admission, first shared by Geoff Keighley on social media, marks the first time Microsoft has acknowledged the scale of the exodus.
"We shed millions of subscribers over the span of a few months," Ball said.
Game Pass Ultimate jumped from $19.99 to $29.99 per month last October, a $120 annual increase. Subscribers revolted, flooding social media with cancellation announcements. The backlash was severe enough that Microsoft reversed course within six months. In April 2026, one of new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's first major moves was slashing Ultimate back to $23 per month. Ball said the company "corrected that offering" with the price drop. The trade-off: Microsoft pulled day-one Call of Duty releases from Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Ball noted that decision resonated with users. At $23, Ultimate remains $3 more expensive than its pre-hike price. Ball acknowledged the gap but argued "the value has changed" for the subscription since then.
Microsoft does not publicly disclose Game Pass subscriber counts. The last official figure, from February 2024, put the service at 34 million members, a number that included Xbox Live Gold conversions to Game Pass Core. By July 2025, Game Pass revenue had reportedly reached nearly $5 billion for the first time.
Sharma told Bloomberg the company has "been able to reset Game Pass after an eight-month decline." She added the service has "returned to growth and expanding retention." The price hike and subscriber loss hang over Xbox's broader reset. Ball used his appearance to promise a "reliable pipeline" of console exclusives, naming Gears of War: E-Day (October 2026) and Clockwork Revolution (2027) as titles that will stay Xbox-only.
Microsoft is also pushing forward with its next-generation console, Project Helix, despite rising component costs. But the Game Pass damage is hard to undo. A 50 percent price increase followed by a rollback and the removal of marquee day-one games is not a sign of a healthy subscription business.
It's a company that overestimated how much its users would pay and spent eight months paying for that bet.
