Despite seemingly offering more value in terms of games, Xbox Game Pass is still lagging behind PlayStation Plus in terms of subscribers.
Xbox game pass gift cards are seen in a store in Krakow, Poland on August 26, 2021
According to DualShockers, Microsoft's subscription service still has just around half of what Sony's has (25 million compared to PS Plus' 48 million subscribers). The number goes to as high as 51.2 million subscribers if you merge PlayStation Now, which is what Sony exactly wants to launch this June.
This data came from Zuby_Tech on Twitter, who also revealed that even Nintendo Online dwarfs the subscriber count of Game Pass. The only one it beats? EA Play (12 million subscribers).
Here's the tweet from Zuby_Tech:
Aside from that, the sheer size of PS Plus in terms of subscribers was also enough to put it in the world's top 10 subscription services for anything. This includes streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+:
Sony's PlayStation Plus had enough subscribers to squeak into tenth place, while Xbox Game Pass is at the very end of the spectrum at 13th place behind Paramount Plus' 32.8 million subscribers. The only one above PS Plus was YouTube Premium, with 50 million subs.
It was not revealed where Zuby_Tech got these numbers, but a quick Google search will give you everything you need regarding how Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are doing. Despite the widespread claim that Microsoft's service offers far more than Sony's in terms of the sheer volume of games people can play, this massive disparity.
Furthermore, it also flies in the face of Microsoft's massive game studio acquisitions, which helped boost its first-party developer stability within the last few years.
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Xbox Game Pass And PlayStation Plus' Growth Tracks
If you think about it, PS Plus has had an amazing past few years. As such, the disparity against Game Pass shouldn't be much of a surprise to the industry at all.
At the tail-end of 2021, Sony announced that PS Plus has now reached 48 million subscribers all over the world. According to PushSquare, this is the highest it has ever been since starting back in 2010. Furthermore, there is a chance that the numbers could grow even bigger with the relaunch of the service, which now combines the old PS Plus subscription with PlayStation Now.
all new playstation plus
As for Microsoft, Game Pass did have a pretty successful past few years of its own. It reached the 25 million-subscriber landmark a year after tallying 18 million in an announcement following the reveal of its plan to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (via The Verge).
They've also been looking to further expand Game Pass by offering game streaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming, formerly known as Project xCloud, to PC and iOS users recently. Xbox console owners from as far back as the last-gen Xbox One got their crack at cloud gaming in summer 2021.
With these efforts, there is cause to say that Microsoft could close the gap even more as the years go on. But Sony will obviously want to maintain their distance.
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Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce