Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers have reportedly fallen to around 30 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report — a loss of roughly 4 million compared with figures Microsoft publicised in 2024. The decline matters because it leaves the service far short of Microsoft's internal ambitions and has been cited by the company as a factor behind major cost-cutting, including this week's decision to axe 3,200 jobs from its Xbox division.

The 30 million figure sits well below the roughly 77 million subscribers Microsoft had targeted for July 2026, and a leaked slide from the FTC's investigation into the 2023 Activision Blizzard acquisition revealed an even loftier goal of 100 million paid members by 2030. Microsoft's near-50 percent price rise on Game Pass Ultimate last year — widely seen as covering the cost of day-one Call of Duty releases — was blamed for driving away millions of subscribers, prompting a price cut in April and a decision to delay new Call of Duty games to a year after launch. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has repeatedly flagged the service's growth troubles, saying it "did not grow at the pace we expected", while rival PlayStation has branded the model "value destructive", a claim some developers dispute.