Effective April 21, 2026, Xbox announced that it was slashing the monthly price of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from $29.99 / £22.99 to $22.99 / £16.99 and $16.49 / £13.4 to $13.99 / £10.99, respectively. With that change, Call of Duty games will no longer be a day-one release.
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Henceforth, Call of Duty games will be added to the subscription service about a year after release, but existing installments already released will remain available on Game Pass. Commenting on the price change via a social media post, the new Xbox boss wrote;
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“Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players. Starting today, we’re dropping the price from $29.99 to $22.99/month. Future Call of Duty titles will no longer join Game Pass Ultimate on day one. They will join this tier the following holiday after launch (about a year later). Current Call of Duty titles will remain available to Ultimate subscribers.”
According to a Bloomberg report last year, Xbox lost around $300 million in Call of Duty sales on consoles and PC because many gamers played the game through Game Pass instead of purchasing a copy.
In 2024, Xbox revealed that the number of Game Pass subscribers had grown to 34 million. An update on that number has not been provided since then, leading many analysts to believe it is either stalled or regressing.
Reacting to the development, The Game Business editor Christopher Dring said, “Xbox Game Pass is struggling for growth, and it isn’t delivering on that initial dream Microsoft had back in 2018 when it started putting brand new titles into the service.”
“This price drop is unlikely to solve that, and I fully expect bigger changes, and perhaps a more flexible service, to follow.”
Analysts explain why the Xbox Game Pass price cut is not surprising
Following the update on Game Pass price, several analysts have shared different perspectives that might have inspired the decision. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Mat Piscatella (Circana senior director) and Piers Harding-Rolls (Ampere Analysis head of games research) said that adding Call of Duty as a Game Pass Ultimate day one release did not lead to a surge in subscribers that the company had anticipated.
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“It was clear from very early on in the Call of Duty on Game Pass experiment that it did not lead to a significant increase in Xbox console sales or even subscriptions,” Piscatella said. “So, this change is not surprising at all. A little overdue, perhaps. But not surprising.”
“Subscription spending has been one of the stronger areas of the video game market over the past two years, and is in a good position to continue growing as players look for value with their gaming dollars, particularly given what’s happening in everyday areas of consumer spending such as housing, food and now gas/fuel. The $29.99 monthly price was making the value part of that consumer calculation questionable”.
Harding-Rolls added, “The commercial reasoning for pursuing a subscription-first strategy for new releases the size of Call of Duty has not been realized.”
Do you think the price slash in Xbox Game Pass will lead to the growth of subscribers, or do you think the removal of Call of Duty will make the intent counterproductive? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
