From London's GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit yesterday, Microsoft revealed new stats regarding Xbox Game Pass, including how much both buying and playing games has increased among subscribers. ID@Xbox lead Agostino Simonetta announced to those in the audience that Game Pass subscribers are playing 40% more games, and that figure isn't limited to just those games in the Game Pass catalog.
He said this trend extends even into physical stores too and that players are "way more engaged outside the subscription. They go out to stores and buy more games than they did before they joined."
One poll conducted by Microsoft revealed that 91% of Game Pass subscribers say they tried a Game Pass game in a genre they otherwise wouldn't have tried, and Microsoft cites a 30% overall increase in players expanding their genre horizons among its subscriber base. Simonetta compared it to other entertainment subscriptions where you come for the blockbusters and stay for the hidden gems.
This is a feature Microsoft has put in place almost since day one with Game Pass, where, beginning with Sea of Thieves in March 2018, every first-party title has arrived on Game Pass the same date as its retail launch. Since then, a number of other titles, particularly indies, have done the same despite not having any direct affiliations with Microsoft. Next week's The Outer Worlds is one major third-party title (that Microsoft now owns) coming to the service at launch too, while other titans of the brand such as Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 have boasted their biggest launches ever in their respective franchise histories partly because of their inclusion in Game Pass.
Perhaps the most unexpected of all statistics shared by Simonetta relates to how a game's inclusion in Game Pass actually increases its attention everywhere, even outside of the Game Pass library or even beyond Xbox at all. Simonetta cites the teams behind Afterparty and Descenders as having reported increased interest in their games on other platforms when they were announced as Xbox Game Pass offerings. Within the Xbox Game Pass library, Simonetta says they see an average of six times the usage per game.
Simonetta's message was one of overall optimism for the service regarding all involved parties. Consumers get more games to play in more genres they love or may want to explore, developers and publishers get improved awareness, player bases, and sales. Microsoft keeps players invested in its ecosystem as the next generation of consoles and game streaming is just around the corner.
