The game industry appears to be following in the footsteps of the movie/TV business. Not only is physical media becoming less dominant as the years go on, but so is the concept of buying games a la carte. Game-subscription services have boomed in popularity in recent years. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, in particular, has shown that the future of gaming may very well be tied to monthly fees rather than $60-$70 games. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up the best game-subscription services available now.
Many of these services let you download and play games offline just like you would normally, but a few of our picks also have game-streaming services. Nowadays, you don’t have to be in front of your Xbox or PC to play your favorite games; you can stream them directly to the devices you carry around in your pocket all day. And though TV streaming services have become so segmented that subscribing to everything you want costs as much as cable–you know, the thing these services were supposed to replace–game-streaming services are often all-in-one solutions. In fact, the best game-subscription services offer incredible value, saving you money and offering you more than you could possibly play in your free time.
We’ve kept our list of the best game-subscription services to the very best across consoles, PC, and mobile devices. We hope that our thorough looks at each of these subscription services help you make the best decision for your needs. In the coming months, we’ll continue to update this list as services evolve and change. Perhaps we’ll even be able to add new subscription services to this list.
Xbox subscription services
Let’s kick things off with Microsoft’s suite of subscription services. You technically have four different options for Xbox and one for PC, but Microsoft offers an all-in-one package that is the best value in gaming today.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Although this list is in no particular order, if we had to choose one gaming subscription service that is the best overall, it would certainly be Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
At $15 per month (after a $1 30-day trial), Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is roughly the cost of a Netflix subscription. And much like Netflix, Game Pass specializes in variety. With more than 400 games in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library, there really is a game–and likely many games–for everyone, regardless of which genres you favor.
Part of what makes Xbox Game Pass so great are its day-one releases. Every first-party Microsoft release is available on the service the day the game launches. The rest of 2022 is sparse when it comes to exclusives, but 2023 is absolutely stacked thanks to Forza Motorsport, Starfield, Redfall, Stalker II, and more. Those are some of the most anticipated games of 2023, period, and they will be available from launch day on Game Pass. A wide assortment of third-party games have also launched (and will continue to launch) on Game