Is Xbox Game Pass Still Worth It in 2026?

For the first time in eight years, Xbox Game Pass got cheaper. As of yesterday, 21 April 2026, Microsoft has dropped the price of Game Pass Ultimate from £19.99 to £16.99 a month in the UK (or from $29.99 to $22.99 in the US), and PC Game Pass from £13.49 to £11.99. The catch, and there is one, is that future Call of Duty titles will no longer launch on either Ultimate or PC Game Pass. They’ll arrive about a year later, during the following holiday season.

The official Xbox Wire post confirming the changes was brief, framing it as a response to player feedback. Microsoft’s wording was simple: “Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.” After eighteen months of price hikes that pushed a lot of long-time subscribers to cancel, the answer to “is Game Pass worth it?” has shifted again. Let’s break down the new tiers, what’s still in the catalogue, what you’re losing on day one, and whether you should be subscribing, dropping down, or walking away.

What Just Changed

The headline numbers, with the previous prices in brackets:

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: £16.99 / $22.99 a month (was £19.99 / $29.99)
• PC Game Pass: £11.99 / $13.99 a month (was £13.49 / $16.49)
• Game Pass Premium: £10.99 / $14.99 a month (unchanged)
• Game Pass Essential: Unchanged

Two tiers got cheaper, two stayed the same. The price drop is the first ever for Game Pass Ultimate, which has only ever moved in one direction since launch in 2017.

The Call of Duty change is the trade-off. New Call of Duty titles will no longer hit Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. Instead, they’ll arrive during the following holiday season, roughly a year after release. Existing Call of Duty titles already in the library stay there. So if you’re subscribing for the latest Call of Duty on launch day, you’re now buying it separately at full price.

The Bigger Picture

This is the biggest strategic shift Xbox has made in years. The 50% price hike in October 2025 was widely seen as a mistake, and pulling Call of Duty off day-one Game Pass is a significant pivot given that Microsoft spent $69 billion acquiring Activision and used Call of Duty as a marquee Game Pass selling point.

What it tells you is that Game Pass is being repositioned as a value play rather than a content loss-leader. Microsoft is betting that more subscribers at a lower price beats fewer subscribers paying more for day-one Call of Duty, and there’s an argument to be made that they’re right.

What’s Actually in the Catalogue

A subscription is only worth what you’ll actually play. Here’s what Game Pass Ultimate currently delivers in 2026:

Day-one first-party releases are still the backbone, and Xbox has been at pains to confirm this. Microsoft’s official statement explicitly highlights “major day one releases” as a continued benefit. Forza Horizon 6, Fable, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Gears of War: E-Day are all confirmed Game Pass day-one launches in the months ahead. Bethesda titles continue to land on day one. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, and South of Midnight from the recent past are all still there.

Existing Call of Duty titles stay on the service. Modern Warfare III, Black Ops 6, and the older Modern Warfares remain available. You only lose access to brand new Call of Duty releases for their first year.

EA Play is still bundled with Ultimate, giving you Madden, FC, The Sims, Battlefield, and various Star Wars titles, plus 10-hour trials of new EA releases.

Cloud gaming continues to work across phones, tablets, smart TVs, and Meta Quest headsets, which has quietly become one of the most underrated Game Pass features for anyone who travels or has limited TV access at home.

Indie and third-party rotation brings in dozens of titles each month. Recent additions include Kiln, Aphelion, and Final Fantasy V, which is the kind of mid-tier mix that’s hard to justify buying outright but lovely to dip into.

The catalogue sits at around 400 to 500 games at any given time. Some leave, more arrive, and the day-one releases keep the headline value intact.

Who Should Subscribe to What

The four-tier structure can be confusing, so let’s cut through it.

Game Pass Ultimate at £16.99 a month is the right pick if you play across console and PC, or want cloud gaming, or actually use the EA Play library, or want every day-one first-party release the moment it lands. For families with multiple gaming devices in the house, it’s still the most cost-effective single subscription gaming offers.

Game Pass Premium at £10.99 a month is the new sweet spot for many people. Six pounds cheaper than Ultimate, but you lose day-one releases, EA Play, and cloud gaming. If you mostly play on a single Xbox console and you’re happy waiting a few months for first-party games to drop into the standard catalogue, Premium does most of what people actually use Game Pass for.

PC Game Pass at £11.99 a month is essentially Ultimate without the console side, and now also without day-one Call of Duty. If you’re a PC-only gamer who isn’t deep into Call of Duty, it’s the cleaner option.

Game Pass Essential is the entry tier, cheaper still, but with a smaller library. Worth it only if you’re testing the waters or you genuinely only want online multiplayer plus a small game catalogue.

The Call of Duty Question

If you’re a Call of Duty player, the calculation changes. Previously, your Game Pass Ultimate subscription gave you day-one access to the latest Call of Duty for £19.99 a month, which was an obvious bargain compared to paying £70 for the game outright. Now, you have to buy Call of Duty separately and you wait roughly a year for it to drop into Game Pass.

For dedicated Call of Duty players, the new maths works out roughly even. A year of Ultimate at the new price is £203.88, plus £70 for the latest Call of Duty, totals £273.88. A year of the old Ultimate at the higher price was £239.88 with Call of Duty included. So you’re paying around £34 more per year if Call of Duty is a must-have, and saving £36 a year if you can live without it on day one.

For everyone who didn’t really play Call of Duty, this is unambiguously a price drop with no downside.

The Honest Verdict

After eighteen months where the answer to “is Game Pass worth it” was getting harder to defend, the answer in April 2026 is yes for most people, with two caveats.

Yes, if you play first-party Xbox games, value the rotating catalogue, and use Game Pass on more than one device. The new £16.99 price for Ultimate brings it back into clearly-good-value territory, especially with Forza, Fable, Halo, and Gears all landing on the service this year and next.

Maybe, if you’re a die-hard Call of Duty player. The waiting period for new Call of Duty is genuinely a downgrade, and you should price up whether dropping to Premium plus buying Call of Duty separately works out better than Ultimate.

Probably not, if you mostly play live service games like Fortnite, Apex, or Marvel Rivals, all of which are free to play anyway. Game Pass earns its keep when you play single-player or first-party games. If you don’t, you’re paying for a library you barely touch.

For families, Premium at £10.99 is now the most underrated tier on the market. Hundreds of family-friendly games, no day-one releases (which you probably don’t need on day one anyway), at a price that’s hard to argue with.

A Quick Note on the Stack Hack / Loaded

For anyone in the US, there’s an additional angle worth flagging. Retailers like StackSocial are currently selling three-month Ultimate codes at a discount, stackable up to nine months at once. New and existing subscribers can both redeem them, which means you can lock in extended Ultimate access at an even lower effective rate than Microsoft’s official pricing. UK equivalents from Loaded (formerly CDKeys) and similar retailers tend to come and go, so it’s worth checking if you’re committing to a long subscription.

The Bottom Line

For the first time in years, Microsoft has actually responded to player feedback. The Game Pass that’s now £16.99 a month for Ultimate is the same Game Pass it was last week at £19.99, minus future Call of Duty day-one access. For the vast majority of subscribers, that’s a clear win. For a small but vocal minority who built their year around Call of Duty launches, it’s a calculation worth making carefully.

Eight years in, Game Pass has had its first proper price cut. It’s not the £8.99 of the early days, but at £16.99 a month for what’s still the best value in gaming subscriptions, it’s earned the right to ask “is it worth it?” again, and to be answered with a yes.