It"s been a hot minute since Microsoft officially revealed the subscriber numbers for its Xbox Game Pass service, which allows gamers to access hundreds of games for a monthly subscription price.
The last time the company openly revealed those numbers was back in January 2022, when it first revealed its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. In its press release announcing the plan, Microsoft stated, "We also announced today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers."
For well over a year, the company has yet to offer any updates on those numbers. However, it was discovered today that one of Microsoft"s Xbox executives, Craig McNary, briefly revealed a new number on his LinkedIn profile.
McNary"s listing shows he was the director of integrated marketing for the Xbox division for several years until August 2023, when he got the new title of Senior Director: Platform & Brand Marketing at Xbox. In his LinkedIn profile, he briefly showed that while he was in his early position he helped to launch and grow Xbox Game Pass "to over 30M members".
Xbox Game Pass has over 30 million members. pic.twitter.com/AusSuaVLvZ
— Timur222 (@bogorad222) September 15, 2023
While his profile no longer shows that mention, the internet does not forget. X user "Timur222" posted a screenshot of McNary"s earlier profile with those Xbox Game Pass numbers (via Windows Central).
It"s currently unknown when McNary updated his LinkedIn profile with that info. Assuming it was done in August, that means it took 19 months to increase that Xbox Game Pass number by five million members.
This week, Microsoft launched Xbox Game Pass Core as a replacement for its Xbox Live Gold service, offering subscribers access to 36 games and online multiplayer for $9.99 a month. It"s unknown how many Xbox Live Gold members switched over to the Xbox Game Pass Core service, and if those numbers could possibly be added to Microsoft"s overall Xbox Game Pass subscriber figures.