Microsoft hiked the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 per month last year, a massive 50 percent hike. The company tried to justify the price hike with a variety of upgrades across all of its Xbox Game Pass tiers, but the cost increase has clearly taken its toll on Game Pass.

I understand that part of the cost increase for Game Pass was down to Microsoft's decision to add Call of Duty into the subscription service. I reported nearly two years ago that Microsoft had been debating whether to put new releases of Call of Duty into Game Pass, with concerns from some at the company at the time that the revenue generated from typical Call of Duty sales would be undermined by Game Pass. Microsoft went on to add Call of Duty to Game Pass in the summer of 2024.