10 Bold Predictions For The New Gaming Generation
3. Xbox Game Pass Tops 100 Million Subscribers
Xbox Game Pass has arguably been the single-most substantial, truly game-changing industry evolution this past generation, presenting a previously unfathomable amount of value for an incredibly competitive monthly fee.
Though Game Pass' growth was initially slow out of the gate following its June 2017 launch, its subscriber base has surged considerably in recent times, largely due to both the addition of PC support and the sheer number of quality AAA titles that have found their way onto the platform.
From April to September of this year, Game Pass' subscriber base skyrocketed from 10 million to 15 million, and it's now time to make a bolder-than-bold prediction: Game Pass will top 100 million subs by the end of this generation in 2027/2028.
Game Pass will continue to grow and expand at a speed that outpaces projections due to not only the successful launch of the Xbox Series X, but also the hardware's increasing array of exclusive content and the ability to stream said games through the cloud.
By the end of the generation, just about everyone with an Xbox will have Game Pass, not to mention PC and mobile players.
If you're still not convinced, consider that Netflix had "only" 44 million subscribers back in 2013, and seven years later now has 195 million paid-up members.
Though Netflix obviously isn't immediately comparable to Game Pass, expect Microsoft to remain the crowned king of the gaming subscription services for the generation, ensuring it becomes their most lucrative revenue stream moving forward.