Xbox Game Pass is proving to be hugely beneficial to both gamers and publishers

Xbox Game Pass has been around for a couple of years now but the service really started making an impact over the last 12 months. At the beginning of last year, Microsoft announced that all future first-party games would launch on Game Pass day-one. Now, the service has millions of subscribers, and Microsoft is seeing positive benefits across the board.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer has already confirmed that there are “millions of subscribers” for Game Pass at this point. Beyond that though, a more details breakdown of the benefits of GamePass has come to light.

This aligns with EA data from a couple of years back that showed subscribers of its EA Access program:

1. Play More (2.5x more games)
2. Play for longer (4x longer)
3. Spend more (3x more) pic.twitter.com/fjaJYWgFVI

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 13, 2019

Through Game Pass, Microsoft has observed a 20 percent increase in playtime for games and a 40 percent increase in the number of games played. Essentially, those using the service are trying a wider variety of titles that they may not have bought otherwise, and they are playing those games for longer periods of time.

However, that's not to say that those subscribing to Game Pass aren't also buying games. On average, pre-orders are 25 percent higher for those with Game Pass and there is a 10 percent increase in franchise game sales. The final tidbit worth noting is that when an existing game enters Game Pass, player counts can double, which is great news for multiplayer games that need a boost, or perhaps single-player titles that need to reach a wider audience.

KitGuru Says: I use Xbox Game Pass regularly and while it hasn't necessarily led to me buying more games, it has got me trying out a wider range. Without Game Pass, I likely wouldn't be looking forward to checking out Crackdown 3, and I likely would not have jumped into Sea of Thieves. 

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