Thompson: Xbox Game Pass has 30M subscribers and is decreasing
Ben Thompson · Ben Thompson Explains the XBOX Disaster · Jul 8, 2026 · at 17:56
Ben Thompson discusses Microsoft's Game Pass subscriber numbers versus internal targets.
0:00 / 0:10exact quote · 10.9s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And they, I think the, you know, the recent reporting was they expected to have seventy-five million Game Pass subscribers by this year. They have like thirty million, and that number is actually decreasing. It's not going up.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ben Thompson
Thompson: China's Optimal Response to US Super-AI Dominance Is Bombing TSMC
“What happens if we get super powerful AI and China doesn't? What are they going to do? The optimal thing would be to just bomb TSMC out of existence, because suddenly that becomes optimal, even with all the costs that that does, and then what?”
Ben Thompson: Rockstar should charge $200 for GTA VI
“No, they should be charging like 200 dollars.”
Thompson: Regulators block defensive mergers while ignoring emerging market dominance
“The moment that a company, an industry, wants to consolidate, needs to consolidate, is the moment regulators are most likely to stop them consolidating. And whereas the actual time when action would matter, like when it, when it's growing and a company is maki…”
Thompson: Private AI Labs Imposing Unilateral Limits Invites Severe State Backlash
“Unilaterally imposing restrictions, even if those restrictions are good, isn't just an issue as far as who rules us, the democracy issue, that sort of Palmer Luckey, I think very eloquently raised. It's inviting Very bad outcomes for those asserting that in ge…”
Thompson: China's Dependence on Taiwan Chips Creates Safer Geopolitical Equilibrium
“I think it is a safer equilibrium To have China dependent on Taiwan than to try to cut them off from Taiwan while we are dependent on Taiwan. Taiwan is 70 miles off the coast of China. It's not an ideal position in the world for us to have a dependency on it a…”