Microsoft’s gaming subscription service is continuing to grow, with new comments indicating that Xbox Game Pass is getting more investment than ever before.
Speaking with Eurogamer in a broader interview about Xbox and indie games as a whole, ID@Xbox head Chris Charla says that 2025 has been a massive year for Xbox Game Pass, with many developers wanting to continue bringing games to the service.
“The majority of partners who’ve had a game in Game Pass want to bring their future titles to the service,” Charla says. “As a result, we’ve signed deals with more than 150 partners to expand the catalogue. We continue to engage with hundreds of partners each year to review upcoming titles.”
Charla also says that 2025 marks the biggest investment ever for Xbox Game Pass, with an increasing number of teams being signed on for the program.
“Last year, we worked with over 50 teams to sign their first Game Pass deal. This year marks our largest investment in Game Pass to date, and we remain focused on delivering the most exciting and diverse catalogue in gaming.”
ID@Xbox works with independent developers, bringing on teams that have less experience (or in some cases, no experience) publishing video games.
A fantastic year for games so far
Obviously, differences in personal tastes mean there’s going to be some nuance and disagreement no matter what year is being discussed, but for my money and preferences, I’d say this has been the best year of Xbox Game Pass ever.
A lot of that does naturally come down to the utter deluge of first-party games, but the third-party titles have stood out as well, especially with the likes of Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is easily my personal frontrunner for game of the year.
It’s a beautiful game, with incredible art direction and a phenomenal soundtrack, all carefully woven into a narrative I’m still thinking about. The game launched day one in Xbox Game Pass, and additionally has gone on to sell over 4.4 million copies so far.
11 bit studios’ survival city-builder Frostpunk 2 also recently came to consoles, and like last year’s excellent PC version, is available in Xbox Game Pass.
That’s to say nothing of the myriad excellent titles that I haven’t gotten around to checking out yet, including Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong.
As prices rise, subscription spending is growing in the U.S.
It’s also worth noting that subscription service spending is up meaningfully in the U.S. so far this year, with analytics firm Circana noting that overall non-mobile subscription spending was up 21% year-over-year in July.
Naturally, that isn’t all Xbox Game Pass, but Microsoft’s subscription service is a part of that pie. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently noted that Xbox Game Pass annual revenue reached over $5 billion for the first time in 2025.
I’m quite curious to see how much longer this trend of subscription growth continues in the U.S, and what (if any?) kind of bump we’ll see from the remaining Xbox first-party titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 slated to launch later this year.
Still, as long as growth continues, it’s nice to see Microsoft investing more and more in signing additional games, not just for players but also for developers that are otherwise concerned about getting their feet in the door for the first time.
Subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and play day one Xbox games whichever way you’d like, on Xbox consoles, PC, or even through the Cloud on a wide range of devices. Going with this tier means you never miss out on anything coming to the service.
