Key Takeaways

  • Xbox Game Pass is a popular subscription service for Xbox consoles, offering access to a library of games for a monthly fee.
  • There are three tiers of Xbox Game Pass: Game Pass Core, Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate, each with its own features.
  • The price for Xbox Game Pass ranges from $9.99 per month to $16.99 per month, depending on the tier and location.

Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass is a pretty big deal. It's widely considered to be the best subscription service of its kind, trumping even the popular PlayStation 5. It works on older Xbox One consoles along with the Xbox Series S and Series X. It's also one of the best ways to get into the Xbox ecosystem without spending hundreds of dollars up front on games.

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There are multiple tiers of Xbox Game Pass that range from $9.99 per month to $16.99 per month. Each tier has varying features that we'll go over throughout the course of this article.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (3 months)

Three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes access to hundreds of Xbox games, plus EA Play, Cloud Gaming, online play and more.

Here's everything you need to know about Xbox Game Pass, Game Pass Core and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

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What is Xbox Game Pass Core, Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate?

Xbox Game Pass Core, regular Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate are the three tiers of the service. Each one has its own set of features. There is also a PC-specific variant of the service if you don't own an Xbox that still grants many of the same Xbox Game Pass features, here's what each entails:

Xbox Game Pass Core

Xbox Game Pass Core is the replacement for the old Xbox Gold membership. This grants online console multiplayer, 25 games that you can download and play for free, and various membership deals and discounts. It essentially replaced Xbox Gold and Xbox Gold subscribers were moved to this subscription tier in September 2023.

Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass is only available on Xbox consoles and is a step up from Game Pass Core. Curiously, it doesn't include online console multiplayer. However, it does include all the games on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier and the membership deals of the Core tier. It's essentially an upgraded Core subscription.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the top tier version of Game Pass and includes all the benefits of Game Pass Core along with the entire Game Pass games library, an EA Play membership, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. If you want to pay a subscription and forget about it, this is how you do it.

PC

PC is a specialized tier specifically for PC players. It features most of the same features as Game Pass Ultimate, but only on PC. It removes things like online console multiplayer while keeping the Game Pass games library and membership deals and EA Play.

How much does Xbox Game Pass cost?

When Game Pass Core launches in September 2023, there will be three tiers of Game Pass available - check out the cost of each, below.

Xbox Game Pass Core price

Xbox Game Pass Core runs you $9.99 per month or $60 per year for access to online multiplayer in your games, and a roster of over 25 Game Pass games.

Xbox Game Pass price

The standard version of Game Pass includes access to hundreds of games with new additions all the time, and costs $10.99 a month - however, it doesn't include online multiplayer access.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is priced at $16.99 a month. As mentioned, it includes the full Game Pass games library on both console and PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, online multiplayer for console, and membership deals and discounts.

All of these prices changed in July 2023, when a price hike happened, as you can see in the table below.

Country

Game Pass

Game Pass Ultimate

United States

$9.99 ► $10.99

$14.99 ► $16.99

Australia

$10.95 ► $11.95

$15.95 ► $18.95

Canada

$11.99 ► $12.99

$16.99 ► $18.99

Most of Europe

€9.99 ► €10.99

€12.99 ► €14.99

New Zealand

$12.95 ► $13.95

$19.95 ► $21.95

United Kingdom

£7.99 ► £8.99

£10.99 ► £12.99

What games are on Xbox Game Pass?

Xbox Game Pass will always offer more than 300 games, made up of Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox backwards compatible titles. Some might be switched in future for other games, but her2e is the current list of all the games that are currently available:

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Xbox

All the Xbox One & Series X/S games on Xbox Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate:

Note, all games run on Xbox One as well as Xbox Series X/S, but can have enhancements on the next-gen consoles. Some games will also feature Xbox's Auto HDR and/or FPS Boost technologies.

We also very highly recommend using your browser's Find In Page function, there are hundreds of games listed below.

All the games included in Xbox Game Pass Core

These games will be included when Game Pass Core launches on 14 September 2023.

** included as part of EA Play for Ultimate subscribers only.