Xbox Game Pass members play more games, try more genres, and spend more money, says Microsoft

Game Pass is an incredibly popular service, with over 25 million subscribers as of January 2022. If you like those numbers, then you’re going to love Microsoft’s breakdown of how Game Pass members spend their time and money. Being part of the service leads to a lot of new experiences for players and more success for developers.

The stats come from a Game Pass-focused GDC video from Microsoft. Content planning director Joyce Lin and content planning senior director Eugene Kim, joined by an ASL interpreter, reveal some rather striking stats about Game Pass. First, subscribers play 40% more games after signing up, and they play 30% more across different genres. This checks out — if you have access to everything, you’re more willing to try anything. Furthermore, subscribers spend 50% more than comparable users, which again makes sense. Game Pass titles don’t stay free forever, but they are made available at a discount for members.

Game Pass is good news for developers too. Games see an average player increase of 8.3x when they come to Game Pass, and new releases have a 3.5x increase on Game Pass versus those that don’t launch on the service. Indie games see an even larger average increase of 15x. While those facts are in the video as selling points for potential new Game Pass partners, they are nonetheless interesting to learn.

It’ll be interesting to see how Marvel Unlimited factors into these stats in the future. The comic book binging service just announced a free trial for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.