Xbox Game Pass has around ten times as many subscribers as PS Now

By Oscar Dayus,
Xbox Game Pass has around ten times as many subscribers as Sony's equivalent service PlayStation Now, it seems. As part of its latest financial report, Microsoft revealed the latest Xbox engagement statistics, including that Xbox Game Pass has reached 10 million users. PlayStation Now, by contrast, had 1 million subscribers at the last count in October 2019. While that figure has likely increased since then, the gap in numbers of players using each service is stark.

"We saw all-time record engagement this quarter, with nearly 90 million active users of Xbox Live, led by strength on and off console," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in the company's FY2020 Q3 earnings report. "Xbox Game Pass has more than 10 million subscribers, and we are seeing increased monetization of in-game content and services. And our Project xCloud gaming service now has hundreds of thousands of users in preview across seven countries, with eight more launching in the coming weeks."

Xbox Game Pass

The discrepancy is especially interesting when you consider PS Now has been around for longer than Xbox Game Pass. The former launched in January 2014, while the latter opened its virtual doors in June 2017. Microsoft has, however, promoted Game Pass extremely hard, bundling in all first-party Xbox games from day one and launching an equivalent service for PC.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Sony handle the two services in the lead-up and early days of the upcoming generation of consoles. There is some speculation that Microsoft will bundle Game Pass subscriptions in with purchases of Xbox Series X, while the rumours of an all-digital Xbox Series S - which would rely heavily on digital services like Game Pass - refuse to go away. Sony, on the other hand, is yet to reveal its hand for the PlayStation 5 and for its digital service plans over the next few years.
Oscar Dayus
Written by Oscar Dayus
Oscar is the acting editor of both TrueAchievements and TrueTrophies. He's written for GameSpot, Vice, PCGamesN, Pocket Gamer, VideoGamer, and, to be honest, too many others to name. Send him good memes, if you like.
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