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Xbox Game Pass grows to 18 million members

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Microsoft has announced a new total of 18 million monthly subscribers to Xbox Game Pass.

It means Microsoft's subscription service has grown by a net total of three million users, up from the 15 million last mentioned in September 2020.

Last year saw strong growth for Xbox Game Pass, which had just 10 million subscribers back in April 2020.

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Additions of popular live service games such as Destiny 2 have undoubtedly helped, alongside longer-term reasons to jump aboard such as Microsoft's impending Bethesda and Zenimax buyout, the addition of EA Access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and the fact next-gen games now cost up to £70 individually.

The new figure comes from Microsoft's latest financial results which, as ever, do not include actual sales numbers for Xbox consoles.

On the launch of Xbox Series S/X, Microsoft simply said the two consoles' arrival was the best Xbox launch in the company's history with the most consoles ever sold in a launch month - all of which we've heard before.

Demand for Xbox Series S/X continues to be extremely high, with consoles sold out in minutes of going on sale. But console launches are always constrained by stock and availability - making them more a matter of how many boxes a manufacturer can ship to retail. Additionally, Microsoft launched Xbox Series S/X in 37 markets, compared to 13 for Xbox One.

Finally, Microsoft announced a rather nebulous figure of 100 million active Xbox Live users (not Gold subscribers) across all platforms.