Xbox Game Pass Greatly Increases Player Bases for New and Old Games

By Colin Stevens

Microsoft has revealed some interesting statistics about its game subscription service Xbox Game Pass, including how it helps grow player bases and franchise sales.

In an article published by The Sydney Morning Herald, head of planning for Game Pass Matt Percy claims that players’ time spent in games generally increases by 20% once they join Xbox Game Pass, and the number of individual games they play increases by 40%.

“People are drawn to the biggest brands and the stuff that they know. But with Game Pass we’re really giving them a wider taste and getting people to follow or look at a wide variety of franchises,” said Percy. “People might come for Halo but then discover they love Ashen. That’s a really good thing for us as a platform.”

Big-name titles put on Game Pass allegedly see their active player base double in size, and some older games have their player bases increase by six times on average, and in some instances they have grown by 32 times.

On top of this, pre-orders for games that are sequels or in the same franchise as games on Game Pass allegedly see significant increases as well. “On average we see a 25% increase in franchise pre-orders and a 10% increase in franchise sales coming from games that go into Game Pass,” said Percy. “And that’s coming from Game Pass members discovering they really love franchises and following along with them.”

For more on Game Pass, check out the new games that came to the service in February 2019, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider and The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. Crackdown 3, which will be released on February 15, will launch simultaneously on Game Pass.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.