Rocket League only debuted on Game Pass last week, on July 10. However, just five days after it was included on Microsoft’s subscription service, it appears to have jumped to the top of Xbox’s charts. Right now, the game seems to be topping Microsoft’s top paid charts on Xbox One- which seems to indicate that its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass has helped sales for it more than anything else.
That is truly surprising- for one thing, Rocket League is an old game, so you would expect that most people who want to buy it will have bought it already (and those that don’t won’t bother beyond playing it for free on Game Pass). Secondly, with it being available on Game Pass, there normally wouldn’t be any incentive to go out and buy it- and yet, that’s what seems to have happened. The game launched on Game Pass, and people decided to buy it en masse.
This seems to suggest that, contrary to what many have believed about Game Pass hurting game sales, it seems to be helping them. Many users can treat Game Pass games as safe “demos”, and then, based on their impressions, choose to actually buy the title if they like what they play. As long as developers are making great games, it seems like they have nothing to fear form Game Pass.
https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1018881721771622401
