How to Choose the Best Game Subscription Service

Gaming is starting to look more and more like Netflix: Instead of buying a disc at the store and popping it in at home, you have a bevy of services from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nvidia, and even Netflix itself. Services provide access to tons of games for a monthly price, or allow you to stream them without the need for a long download. Between Xbox Game Pass Core, Game Pass Ultimate, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Extra, PS Plus Premium, Nintendo Switch Online, and everything else, it’s hard to know what's worth paying for. Let’s break it all down.

Table of Contents

PlayStation Services ComparedXbox Services ComparedNintendo Switch Services ComparedMobile Phone SubscriptionsGame Streaming ServicesAnd the Rest

Updated October 2024: We updated prices throughout, added mention of Xbox Game Pass for Console becoming Game Pass Standard, and updated details for several services.

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PlayStation Subscriptions

Plus Essential vs. Plus Extra vs. Plus Premium

If you have a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, you can subscribe to PlayStation Plus, with three membership tiers.

Sony PlayStation 5.

Photograph: SonyPlayStation Plus Essential

For $10 per month (or $80 per year), you can play online multiplayer. Without a subscription, you can play only single-player games offline. PS Plus also sweetens the deal by giving you at least two free games each month (usually, one PS5 title and two PS4 titles), which you can keep as long as you're a subscriber.

If you have a PS5, the PS Plus collection adds 20 of the best PS4 games for you to catch up on. There are also exclusive discounts in the PlayStation Store, and you get cloud storage for saved games. Best of all, you can often get PS Plus super cheap from reputable sellers on eBay or other third-party sellers, so it's an easy purchase.

PlayStation Plus Extra

For $15 per month (or $135 per year), you get everything the Essential tier offers, but the Extra tier adds a catalog of up to 400 of “the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games.” This library of games is available to download and play and includes blockbusters from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners. Membership includes games like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Death Stranding, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Returnal. Available games vary by market, and the lineup changes over time. This is probably the best tier for most people.

Courtesy of SonyPlayStation Plus Premium

For $18 per month (or $160 per year), you get everything in the two tiers above, plus 340 additional games, including PS3 games available via cloud streaming and original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP games that you can download or stream. The PlayStation Now streaming service was assimilated into this Premium tier, so you also get cloud streaming access to all PlayStation, PS2, PSP, and PS4 games offered as part of your membership. You can stream to a PS4, PS5, or PC.

One last perk of the Premium tier is time-limited game trials. The Premium tier is only available in countries that currently get PS Now. Other markets get PS Plus Deluxe, which is cheaper and offers a similar library of titles to download and play.

Note: PlayStation's cloud streaming service is different from PS Remote Play, which lets you stream games from a PS4 or PS5 in your house to another PS4 or PC. Remote Play is free for everyone as long as you own the console and the games.

Xbox Subscriptions

Game Pass Core (Live Gold) vs. Game Pass vs. Game Pass Ultimate

Xbox's stable of services is a little more confusing. There are three separate subscription services, some of which have separate tiers and include other subscriptions bundled into them.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Courtesy of MicrosoftXbox Network

Formerly known as Xbox Live, Xbox Network doesn't cost anything, but in the interest of clarity, we are including it here. This is where you create your online profile and friends list, send and receive messages, and so on. Microsoft allows online multiplayer without a paid subscription for more than 50 free-to-play games. You cannot, however, play most games online with friends unless you have a paid subscription to one of the tiers below.

Xbox Game Pass Core (Xbox Live Gold)

Xbox Live Gold is now Game Pass Core (existing subscribers were automatically moved onto the new service). For $10 per month (or $60 a year), this subscription allows you to play Xbox games online with friends. (A Game Pass Core subscription is not required to play Microsoft's PC games online.) You get access to a library of more than 30 games as a part of your subscription (instead of the two games a month you got with Live Gold), as well as discounts on other games in the Microsoft Store.

Xbox Game Pass Standard (Game Pass for Console)

Previously called Game Pass for Console, this service costs $15 per month and includes hundreds of games, with some titles occasionally rotating in and out, Netflix-style. Unlike Game Pass for Console, Game Pass Standard includes online console multiplayer, but some day-one games and other titles, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, will not be immediately available and could take up to 12 months to appear on the service.

Xbox Game Pass for PC

This is the same as Xbox Game Pass Standard, but—as the name implies—it lets you download and play those games on your PC. It is slightly cheaper at $12 per month but includes games from EA Play, meaning it has a slightly larger library.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

This subscription includes everything we've mentioned so far. It's a combo service for $20 per month that lets you access the entire Game Pass and EA Play libraries on your PC and Xbox, along with online multiplayer and discounts in the Microsoft Store (no need for a separate Game Pass Core subscription). This also includes Microsoft's game streaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming (previously called xCloud), which is in beta and streams games from the internet to your Xbox, Windows PC, or phone.

Even with yet another recent price rise, Game Pass Ultimate is one of the best deals in gaming right now. If you play a lot of different games, or have a mix of Xbox and PC gamers in the house, it's worthwhile—but if you tend to stick to a few titles for months at a time, it might not be as compelling. Check out our picks of the best Xbox Game Pass games to get an idea of what's on offer.