Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s price recently shot up a tremendous 50% in the US, up from $19.99 to $29.99 per month. That’s an extra $120 per year, and a lot of extra cash you need to find in order to keep what used to be the best deal in gaming around. Yeesh!
If you want to beat the price hike, your best option is to stack your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership to its limit (36 months) while the change isn’t yet enforced. Or… cancel your subscription altogether. I’m not your boss.
But, it’s worth noting that Amazon has recently updated its Game Pass pricing and even dropped it instead of the expected price hike. It’s currently 5% off and down to $56.99 for three months of Game Pass Ultimate. Holy smokes!
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
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Amazon also still has one-month codes available for $19.99, which is now effectively a $10 discount.
But you can also purchase three-month codes at a better rate, $56.99 each ($3 off the old pricing, and a significant reduction versus the new $89.99 pricing).
The max you can fill out your account with is 12, which in the US costs $683.88 in total ($227.96 per year). Now that’s a lot, and I’m never going to recommend you suddenly shell out almost $700 on a subscription service, certainly not in this economy. But it’s still worth being honest about the numbers and how much it does cost to avoid a price hike by paying upfront while you can.
Comparatively, at the new $29.99/mo rate, three years of Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $1,079.64.
By buying in now (i.e. paying up to $683.88 to stack codes), you can save up to $395.76 (effectively over extra year covered), yet it’s unlikely any of us will want to pay so much for a service that’s just wacked its prices up (again, and then again).
If anything, this is just good to know if you want to cover yourself for even just the next 12 months, paying $227.96 instead of $359.88.
Xbox Game Pass Tier and Price Changes, October 2025:
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: $29.99 a month, up from $19.99 a month
- Xbox Game Pass Premium: $14.99 a month, the same as the old Standard subscription
- Xbox Game Pass Essential: $9.99 a month, the same as the old Core subscription
- PC Game Pass: $16.49 a month, up from $11.99
The updated pricing goes into effect today, October 1 for new subscribers, and November 4 for current subscribers. As part of the announcement, Microsoft added more than 45 new games to Game Pass. Check out the full list here.
GameStop has also announced that it will not increase the price of Game Pass, but it is not alone as, alongside Amazon, other major US retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart are also yet to match Microsoft’s latest hike.
Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN’s resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.
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