Scoring sheet
How we scored Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus
Every score in Xbox Game Pass vs PlayStation Plus comes from this sheet: the tools we considered, the scale for each criterion, and the evidence and date behind each score.
This page shows the working behind Xbox Game Pass vs PlayStation Plus. It lists the criteria, the weights, what each score means and, for both services and every criterion, the score and the evidence behind it.
Everything here was checked on November 4, 2026. Prices come from Microsoft's and Sony's own US price data, the same data their web pages show. Both catalogs were downloaded on that day from the lists behind each company's own game browser, and we counted them ourselves with the rules below. We did not play the games or test cloud streaming hands-on.
The question and the reader
The question, in the reader's words: "Xbox Game Pass vs PlayStation Plus: which is better value?" Search autocomplete, read for our November 2026 list of topics, also shows "xbox game pass vs ps plus price", "xbox game pass vs ps plus premium", "playstation plus vs extra vs premium", "xbox game pass vs pc game pass" and "xbox game pass vs geforce now". We asked four AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, through their APIs with web search on) five versions of the question on November 4, 2026, which gave 20 answers.
The reader lives in the US, plays on a console or a Windows PC, and wants to know which subscription, and which tier, gives them the most games worth playing for the money. Many already own one console and want to know whether its subscription is worth paying for; some are choosing a console and want the subscription to count.
The field
The question names two services, so this page scores those two. Each service is scored as a whole: price looks at all three of its console tiers, and the other criteria look at its top tier (Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium), with the lower tiers covered in the text. PC Game Pass is described on the page but not scored separately, because PlayStation has no PC subscription to compare it with.
Other subscriptions came up in the AI answers: Nintendo Switch Online (one of our prompts named it), and EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics, which come bundled with these two. Nvidia GeForce Now comes up in search autocomplete next to Game Pass, and we added Apple Arcade ourselves as the other big games subscription. All five are listed on the page as not scored, with the reason.
Criteria and weights
These were set on November 4, 2026, after we downloaded the catalogs and matched the nominee list, and before we scored either service. So the anchors below were written with the rough counts in view: the bands are set so that the ends of each scale mean something (a 12-month price at or below $80 is the cheapest either company sells; 34 nominees is half the list; 700 games is about the largest catalog either has), not to favor one service. The weights were set by the reader's question, below.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 25 | The cost of a year on each of the three console tiers, paid the cheapest way the company offers |
| Acclaimed games | 20 | How many of the 68 Game of the Year nominees at The Game Awards from 2014 to 2025 the top tier includes |
| New releases | 20 | Whether the platform owner's own new games join on launch day, and how many games joined on launch day in the last 12 months |
| Where you can play | 20 | Five checks: current console, Windows PC downloads, cloud play on devices without the console, cloud play of games you bought, and no monthly cap on cloud play |
| Catalog size | 15 | How many games the top tier includes, counted on one day |
Why these weights: price is the cost every subscriber pays, every year, so it counts most. The reader's real question is how many games worth playing they get, so award nominees and new releases come next and count the same: one measures the quality of the back catalog, the other whether the service saves you buying new games at launch. Where you can play decides whether the service fits the hardware you own. Catalog size counts least, because both services list hundreds of games and a bigger list mostly adds games few people look for.
Not scored:
- Online multiplayer. Every console tier of both services includes it, and free-to-play games play online without a subscription on both consoles, so it doesn't separate them. The page says what each entry tier costs.
- Extras. Game Pass Ultimate includes EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics; PlayStation Plus Extra includes Ubisoft+ Classics, and Premium adds game trials and Sony films. Their value depends on whether you already play those games, so the page describes them instead.
- Monthly games. PlayStation Plus Essential adds a few games a month to your library, playable while you subscribe. The page describes them.
What each score means
Price: the average of three tiers, each up to 10
Each of the three console tiers (Xbox Game Pass Essential, Premium and Ultimate; PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium) gets a score from the cost of 12 months, paid the cheapest way the company sells it in the US (a 12-month plan where there is one, otherwise 12 monthly payments):
- 10 for $80 a year or less, and one point less for every $20 above $80, down to 0 at $280 or more.
The price score is the average of the three tier scores, to one decimal. Introductory offers ($1 trials) are left out because they last a month at most.
Acclaimed games: Game Awards nominees in the top tier
The list is every Game of the Year nominee at The Game Awards from 2014 to 2025: 68 games chosen each year by a jury of more than 100 media outlets, as listed in Wikipedia's list of nominees. A nominee counts when the tier includes that game or a remaster or fuller edition of it (for example Persona 5 Royal for Persona 5). Free-to-play games don't count, because nobody needs a subscription to play them.
- 10 for 34 nominees or more (half the list); otherwise the number of nominees divided by 3.4, to one decimal. 22 nominees is 6.5; 11 is 3.2.
Eleven of the 68 nominees are Nintendo games that neither service can offer, so 57 is the most either could reach.
New releases: two parts, up to 10
First-party games (up to 5), from the company's own published terms:
- 5: all of the platform owner's new games join the tier on launch day.
- 4: all of them join on launch day except one named series.
- 2.5: they join within about a year of launch.
- 1: some join, a year or more after launch, at the company's choice.
- 0: none join.
Games added on their launch day in the 12 months to November 4, 2026 (up to 5), from the company's own lists or its announcements:
- 5 for 40 or more; 4 for 25 to 39; 3 for 10 to 24; 2 for 4 to 9; 1 for 1 to 3; 0 for none.
Where you can play: five checks, 2 points each
- Download and play the catalog on the company's current console.
- Download and play catalog games on a Windows PC.
- Stream catalog games from the cloud on devices that aren't the company's own hardware (phones, tablets, browsers, TVs).
- Stream games you bought separately from the cloud.
- Cloud play with no monthly hour cap.
Catalog size: games in the top tier
- The number of games divided by 70, to one decimal, up to 10. 700 games is 10; 630 is 9; 350 is 5.
How we counted: one title counts once, whatever its versions (console and PC, PS4 and PS5) and editions (Standard, Deluxe, Remastered, Director's Cut). Different games in a series count separately. Xbox's console and PC lists for a tier are combined, because a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber can use both.
Scores
Xbox Game Pass: total 7.5
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 5.1 | Essential: a 12-month card at $79.99, sold by retailers such as Target and listed in Microsoft's store catalog (10). Premium: $14.99 a month, no 12-month plan, $179.88 a year (5.0). Ultimate: $22.99 a month, $275.88 a year; Microsoft's catalog lists 12 months at $275.99, so paying monthly is cheapest (0.2). Monthly prices from Microsoft's store catalog, the price service xbox.com's plan page uses, read November 4, 2026. Ultimate fell from $29.99 to $22.99 on April 21, 2026 (Xbox Wire). (10 + 5.0 + 0.2) / 3 |
| Acclaimed games | 6.5 | 22 of 68 nominees in Ultimate (list below). 22 / 3.4 = 6.47 |
| New releases | 9 | First-party: Microsoft's new games join Ultimate and PC Game Pass on launch day except Call of Duty, which arrives "during the following holiday season (about a year later)" since April 21, 2026 (Xbox Wire; the plan page footnote reads "Select games. Excludes Call of Duty titles.") (4). Launch-day games: Xbox's "Play day one" list held 50 games with store release dates from November 4, 2025 to November 4, 2026, four of them Game Preview releases, including Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved, Kiln and Gears of War: E-Day. The list shows only games still in the catalog, so the true number is at least 50 (5). 4 + 5 |
| Where you can play | 8 | Downloads on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One (2). Downloads on Windows PCs with Ultimate, through the Xbox PC app (2). Cloud play on phones, tablets, TVs, browsers and VR headsets on every console tier (2). Cloud play of "select games you own" (2). Monthly cloud caps from November 2026: 15 hours on Ultimate, 10 on Premium, 5 on Essential (Xbox Wire, September 3, 2026); xbox.com's plan page already lists them (0). Platform facts from xbox.com's plan page |
| Catalog size | 9.9 | 694 games in Ultimate's console and PC lists combined, counted once per title: 502 Game Pass games, 122 from EA Play and 70 from Ubisoft+ Classics. 694 / 70 = 9.91 |
PlayStation Plus: total 6.4
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 7.8 | 12-month plans on every tier: Essential $79.99 (10), Extra $134.99 (7.25), Premium $159.99 (6.0), from the plan prices on Sony's PlayStation Plus page, read November 4, 2026. Monthly: $10.99, $16.99 and $19.99, raised for new members on May 20, 2026; 12-month prices unchanged since September 2023 (Push Square; PlayStation Blog, August 2023). (10 + 7.25 + 6.0) / 3 = 7.75, shown as 7.8 |
| Acclaimed games | 6.5 | 22 of 68 nominees in Premium, all of them in Extra too (list below). 22 / 3.4 = 6.47 |
| New releases | 3 | First-party: Sony's new games join a year or more after launch. In June 2025 Sony's Nick Maguire said "we're not looking to put games in day and date" and that they arrive "when they're 12, 18 months old or older" (VGC) (1). Launch-day games: four found from November 2025 to November 2026, none of them Sony's: Skate Story in Extra on its release day, December 8, 2025 (VGChartz; still in the catalog on November 4, 2026), Big Walk in the August 2026 monthly games on its release day, August 4 (Gematsu; PlayStation Blog), RuneScape: Dragonwilds in Extra on September 15, 2026, "available to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers at launch" (PlayStation Blog), and Mycopunk in Extra on October 20, 2026, "releasing into PlayStation Game Catalog day one" (PlayStation Blog). In May 2026 Sony put the usual number at "between four and six a year" (Push Square); four is in the 4-to-9 band (2). 1 + 2 |
| Where you can play | 6 | Downloads on PS5 and PS4 (2). No catalog downloads on a PC (0). Cloud streaming only to a PS5 or PlayStation Portal, Sony's own hardware (cloud streaming on PS5; PlayStation Blog, November 2025). Sony's support index still links to a PlayStation Plus app for PC, which some AI answers say streams Premium games to Windows, but on November 4, 2026 its support page (/en-us/support/subscriptions/ps-plus-pc/, also checked in the UK) returned 404 and its installer link (download-psplus.playstation.com/downloads/psplus/pc/latest) redirected to a file that returned 404, so it isn't counted (0). Streaming of select digital PS5 games you bought (same PlayStation Blog post) (2). No monthly cap on cloud streaming published by Sony; Push Square reported in September 2026 that "Sony's service remains unlimited" (Push Square) (2) |
| Catalog size | 9 | 629 games in Premium: 457 in the Game Catalog (Extra), including 68 Ubisoft+ Classics, plus 172 Classics. 629 / 70 = 8.99 |
Every Game Awards match
A nominee counts when the top tier includes that game or a remaster or fuller edition of it. Both catalogs were read on November 4, 2026.
| Year | Nominee | Game Pass Ultimate | PlayStation Plus Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Dragon Age: Inquisition (winner) | Yes, through EA Play | No |
| 2015 | Bloodborne | No | Yes |
| 2015 | Fallout 4 | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Doom | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Inside | Yes | No |
| 2016 | Titanfall 2 | Yes, through EA Play | No |
| 2016 | Uncharted 4: A Thief's End | No | Yes |
| 2017 | Horizon Zero Dawn | No | Yes, Complete Edition and Remastered |
| 2017 | Persona 5 | Yes, Persona 5 Royal | Yes, Persona 5 Royal |
| 2018 | God of War (winner) | No | Yes |
| 2018 | Assassin's Creed Odyssey | Yes | Yes |
| 2018 | Celeste | No | Yes |
| 2018 | Marvel's Spider-Man | No | Yes, Remastered and Game of the Year Edition |
| 2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | No | Yes |
| 2019 | Control | Yes | No |
| 2019 | Death Stranding | Yes, Director's Cut | Yes |
| 2019 | Resident Evil 2 | Yes | No (the Classics "Resident Evil 2" is the 1998 game) |
| 2019 | The Outer Worlds | Yes | No |
| 2020 | The Last of Us Part II (winner) | No | Yes |
| 2020 | Doom Eternal | Yes | Yes |
| 2020 | Final Fantasy VII Remake | Yes, Intergrade | Yes |
| 2020 | Ghost of Tsushima | No | Yes, Director's Cut |
| 2020 | Hades | Yes | No |
| 2021 | It Takes Two (winner) | Yes, through EA Play | No |
| 2021 | Deathloop | Yes | No |
| 2021 | Psychonauts 2 | Yes | No |
| 2021 | Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart | No | Yes |
| 2021 | Resident Evil Village | Yes | Yes |
| 2022 | God of War Ragnarok | No | Yes |
| 2022 | Horizon Forbidden West | No | Yes |
| 2023 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | No | Yes |
| 2024 | Balatro | Yes | No |
| 2025 | Hades II | Yes | No |
| 2025 | Hollow Knight: Silksong | Yes | No |
| 2025 | Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | Yes | Yes |
The other 33 nominees are in neither catalog: 11 Nintendo games (among them both Zelda games, Super Mario Odyssey and Animal Crossing: New Horizons) and Dark Souls II, Hearthstone, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, Overwatch, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Monster Hunter: World, Sekiro, Elden Ring, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Stray, Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Resident Evil 4, Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Death Stranding 2 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Xbox lists Overwatch, but it is free to play for everyone, so it doesn't count. Some of these are on PlayStation Plus Premium only as time-limited game trials, which don't count.
The tiers below the top
The criteria above judge each service's top tier. For the tiers most people buy:
| Tier | Year | Games | Nominees | Sony's or Microsoft's new games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Pass Essential | $79.99 (12-month card) | 98 | 6 | No |
| PlayStation Plus Essential | $79.99 | Three monthly games | Not counted | No |
| PlayStation Plus Extra | $134.99 | 457 | 22 | A year or more after launch |
| PC Game Pass | $167.88 | 557 | 21 | On launch day, except Call of Duty |
| Game Pass Premium | $179.88 | 460 | 19 | Within a year of launch, except Call of Duty |
At the middle tier, PlayStation Plus Extra costs $44.89 a year less than Game Pass Premium, has about the same number of games and three more nominees; Game Pass Premium gets Microsoft's games sooner and plays on a PC.
How close the call is
Game Pass leads by 1.06 points (7.46 to 6.40 before rounding). The lead comes from New releases (9 to 3) and Where you can play (8 to 6); PlayStation Plus leads on Price (7.8 to 5.1); the two tie on acclaimed games and nearly tie on catalog size.
- The smallest single change that swaps them: moving 13 points of weight from New releases to Price. A reader who puts Price at 38 and New releases at 7 would pick PlayStation Plus, 7.02 to 6.95; at 12 points moved, Game Pass still leads, 6.99 to 6.98. So the call depends on how much you value games at launch, which is why the page gives a verdict for each kind of player.
- With New releases left out and the other weights scaled up to 100, PlayStation Plus scores 7.25 and Game Pass 7.08. That is the reader who is happy to play games a year or more after launch, which is why the page recommends PlayStation Plus Extra to PS5 owners.
- Price averages all three console tiers, while the other criteria judge the top tier. Scored on the top tier's price alone (Ultimate 0.2, Premium 6.0), Game Pass still leads, 6.24 to 5.95.
- If the PlayStation Plus PC app works for cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus gets 8 on Where you can play and 6.80 overall; Game Pass still leads.
- Doubling the weight of Acclaimed games or Catalog size changes nothing: the two are level or close on both.