Game subscriptions had a strange year. Microsoft spent 2025 taking heat for jacking Xbox Game Pass Ultimate up to $29.99 a month — then spent early 2026 walking it back. Sony went the other direction, quietly raising PlayStation Plus prices while leaving its best deal untouched. The result is two subscriptions that look nothing like they did eighteen months ago.

What Xbox Game Pass costs now

Microsoft’s April 2026 pricing update dropped Game Pass Ultimate to $22.99/month, down from the $29.99 high that triggered the 2025 backlash in the first place. The full current lineup:

• Essential — $9.99/month
• Premium — $14.99/month
• PC Game Pass — $13.99/month
• Ultimate — $22.99/month

That’s a real concession, not just a rounding error — Ultimate dropped by roughly a quarter of its previous price, and PC Game Pass came down from a $16.49 high as well.

What PlayStation Plus costs now

Sony raised prices on May 20, 2026, across Essential, Extra, and Premium — but only on monthly and 3-month plans. The 12-month annual plans were left untouched, which is the detail that matters if you’re actually comparing value:

• Essential — $9.99/month
• Extra — $14.99/month
• Premium — $17.99/month

Sony’s top tier is now cheaper than Xbox’s top tier on paper ($17.99 vs. $22.99), but the two aren’t really the same product — Game Pass Ultimate includes day-one first-party releases on PC and console plus cloud streaming, while PS Plus Premium’s day-one catalog is thinner.

So who won?

Between the two, roughly 81 million paying subscribers are split across Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus combined — proof that both companies are fighting over the same increasingly price-sensitive audience. Microsoft’s climbdown suggests the 2025 price hike genuinely cost them subscribers or goodwill; Sony’s quieter increase, paired with protecting the annual plan, reads like a company trying to raise prices without triggering the same backlash.

For most players, the actual answer depends on your library, not the sticker price: Game Pass Ultimate still wins on day-one first-party access, PS Plus Premium wins if you mostly want a deep classics catalog at a lower monthly cost, and the annual plans on both services remain the better deal if you’re subscribing either way.

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Curious how the platforms behind these subscriptions are actually doing? Read about Nintendo Switch 2’s surprisingly strong 2026, or see why the industry is posting record revenue while cutting more jobs than ever.