Microsoft is still far from reaching its Xbox Game Pass subscriber target for 2022.
According to the company’s most recent annual financial performance report, Microsoft estimated to increase the Xbox Game Pass subscribers by 73% by the end of June 2022. But with only a 28% increase in new subscriptions, it remained far short of the target.
Game Pass growth has underperformed estimates for the second consecutive year. The Xbox Game Pass subscriber base increased by just 37% in 2021, falling short of the 48% target.
Microsoft only succeeded in achieving its growth goals in 2020, the year of its introduction, making this the second time it has done so. A better picture emerged in 2020, when subscriptions increased by 86%, above the desired 71% growth. The pandemic, however, undoubtedly had a significant role in the year’s overall gaming growth.
According to Axios, a number of performance-related bonuses for senior employees, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, were dependent on Xbox Game Pass reaching its growth objective.
The CEO of Microsoft stated in the recent financial filing “Microsoft’s success must always be correlated with the success of the world, and our aim must go beyond technology itself to drive global economic development while building a more inclusive, egalitarian, sustainable, and reliable future.”
Additionally, the CADE report states that Game Pass generated $2.9 billion in revenue in 2021, which is impressive considering Xbox only completed its first year at the time. Given that Game Pass wasn’t very successful during its first several months of operation, this is a significant increase for Xbox.
It’s uncertain why Microsoft planned such a lofty goal for itself this fiscal year, given the prior year’s fairly modest growth performance. Nevertheless, given that Spencer hinted at a potential price increase for Xbox’s Game Pass or console, Xbox may now confront a greater struggle given that Game Pass subscriber growth is a reason to be concerned to keep the business working.
