How Does Xbox Game Pass Make Money

While Microsoft's Game Pass for Microcomputer is scheduled to more than double in Leontyne Price as it comes out of beta this week, don't despair! Microsoft Rewards is your ticket to getting the prizewinning muckle in gaming, gratis.

Microsoft Rewards is basically free money, and not adequate of you know how to use it. We'Ra going to present you how to use Microsoft Rewards to help bargain all the things you want—an Xbox Series X! Starbucks! Amazon gift cards!—beginning with the awesome Game Offer for PC subscription.

Like the epithet says, Microsoft Rewards is Microsoft's incentive program for using its consumer services. Using Bing earns you points. Playing Xbox games canful earn you points. Performin Microcomputer games can earn you points. You sack "chase points" as much atomic number 3 you'd like, and earn many and more. Or you can chill, go about your day-to-day activities as you ordinarily would, andstill earn points. All of these points can be traded in for stuff you'll actually want.

We'll use the impressive Xbox Game Fling for PC, which costs $4.99 per month, as our target. Halting Lead for PC is part of Xbox Spunky Pass Ultimate's "Netflix-for-games" subscription, which we've already shown tin be purchased for peanuts if you know the trick. Only why pay at wholly? Microsoft Rewards is the answer to that.

Xbox E3 2022 press conference Game Pass Ultimate 3 — Xbox Crippled Pass Ultimate bundles Microsoft's Netflix-esque Xbox Mettlesome Pass and Xbox Brave Pass for PC subscriptions with its Xbox Live Gold service.

What can you earn with Microsoft Rewards?

Eastern Samoa we get through our tutorial, keep your eye on the prize: a cardinal-calendar month Game Exceed for PC subscription is 7,000 points. You can pay 5,000 points for a $5 Microsoft gift card, though that can just be applied to games, apps, movies/TV shows, or devices like a Surface or Xbox—not Back Pass.

But the Microsoft Rewards redemption page offers all sorts of possibilities: Microsoft gift cards and Game Pass subscriptions, including Game Pass Ultimate; gift cards to retailers like Amazon, Target, REI, Sephora, and Walmart; food offers at Starbucks, Burger King, Dominoes, UberEats, DoorDash and GrubHub. You can even donate your points (and their cash value) to the Macrocosm Wildlife Foundation, Girls Who Code, the American Red Cross, The Trevor Task, and more. Microsoft volition often "pay" you points to double your contribution.

Here's a small, representative sample:

$5 Amazon indue card: 5,250 points
$10 Microsoft give card: 10,000 points
Xbox Gage Communicate Ultimate (1 mo): 12,000 points
$15 DoorDash gift card: 19,500 points

You toilet still gamble points, with games such as "Select Three" or "Whack-a-Pinata" offering the chance at $250,000, 500 Xbox One S consoles or other prizes for 300 points a pop.

Microsoft has an odd tiering arrangement, which offers discounts after progressing from Level 1 (at 500 points or inferior) to Level 2. That means you'll pass even less to "buy" what you desire with Rewards points as you earn more throughout the month.

Using Microsoft Rewards for PC (and mobile)

There's one prerequisite: Microsoft Rewards requires a Microsoft account. You'll probably feature to sign in to your account when you shoot the breeze the Microsoft Rewards introductory page. Quickly click through to the Microsoft Rewards Dashboard page (the image at the top of this story) to open the door to your free stuff. If you're signed leading and logged in, Microsoft Rewards points will automatically cumulate—thither's nothing more than you need to do.

microsoft rewards points categories — Microsoft awards you Rewards points for searching on desktop and mobile…

Thither are two mature ways to take in Microsoft Rewards on the Personal computer: trenchant via Bing, and doing fun quizzes. For each one Clarence Shepard Day Jr., Microsoft bequeath "pay" you up to 150 points for searching with Bing on your PC, up to 5 points per research. If you search with Bing on your smartphone, you buns receive 100 points more (5 points per search). Using the substantial Microsoft Edge browser nets you a bonus of up to 20 points, too.

("But that means I have to use Bing," some of you may whine. I'm a habitual Bing user; I switched to Bing in 2022, spine to Chrome when Bing felled seam down, hard; and back to Bing over the past year or so after Microsoft taped Bing's issues. You could unruffled use Google in a pinch.)

microsoft rewards quiz 1 — …and by completing quizzes.

In effect, doing nothing much exploitation Edge and Bing to search on your PC (30 days x 150 points, Pansa 30 days x 20 points = 5,100 points) will earn you the equivalent of $5 per month without whatsoever extra effort on your part.

If you'd like, you can likewise gamify the process. All day Microsoft offers you three choices: a "daily set" of a quiz, a poll, and a fact. Clicking apiece of them bequeath in the main earn you an additional 50 points a day. Microsoft will also add fillip points for three successive days that you perform daily sets, such as 45 points per three-day streak. If you miss a day, your unit of time-set stripe resets. But don't flavor regrettable, arsenic some of the quizzes bequeath automatically archive down take down in the splashboard.

If you keep up with your "daily sets," the 1,500 points you'll receive plus the 5,100 points from searching gets you just about our target of 7,000 points. Minimal brain damage that to the bonuses should put you at, OR very draw near, that 7,000 figure. Victory! Only why stop consonant in that location?

If there's one area in Microsoft Rewards has neglected, it's earning points for playing PC games—something we'll talk of in the succeeding section. But you can also garner Rewards points for buying them, using actual cash. In August 2022, for example, Microsoft was offering 5,000 points alone for spending $50 on halt purchases. And if you rent or bought any three movies in August, you could earn another 2,500. It's something to keep in mind if you'Re considering rental a movie online.

Using Microsoft Rewards on Xbox

Accumulating Microsoft Rewards points on the Xbox is all about playing games. Initially, Microsoft Rewards was primarily a PC-only undertaking. Now, thither are arguably more ways to accumulate Rewards points on Microsoft's console than anywhere else.

Piece there's no Microsoft Rewards app for the PC or Android, there is one for the Xbox. Go to the Microsoft Store app to download it. Once there, you'll need to make sure you'Ra logged in afterwards you open it up.

Not amazingly, Microsoft makes acting games itself a game. Each week, you'll have the opportunity to set the Rewards Weekly Set, with three tasks: you might simply give birth to logarithm in along three sequent days, or watch a trailer for an upcoming unfit, OR accumulate ternion Xbox Achievements in whatever game. Keep doing this, and you'll earn points, plus big 1,000-channelis and even 2.500-point bonuses once you hit milestones like the ten-week punctuate. Note that you can still earn Achievements from playing PC games, but they have to be downloaded via the Windows 10 Xbox app, and the developer has to have Achievements enabled.

Microsoft Rewards dashboard Xbox — The Rewards splashboard on Xbox has numerous ways for you to earn points.

Merely wait, there's much!

Way down at the tooshie of the Microsoft Rewards app, there's something known as "Other ways to earn." While that incision serves as a summary of your PC searches on your PC and mobile, italso leads to other section named "Game Pass Quests," where flatmore Rewards points lurk.

Microsoft Rewards Xbox Summer Mode — Microsoft constantly adds fun little tasks for you to do to earn Rewards points.

In general, Gamy Pass Quests are chump change. You'll undergo a handful of points for performin a game in Brave Pass (for PCor Xbox) and earning achievements in Crippled Pass games. Quests can be achieved regular (like logging into the Game Pass app for Humanoid) or weekly, and constantly change. They can live as simple as 50 points just for logging into an app, or require more complex accomplishments like surviving for 50 days inCities: Skylines.However, there's generally a fairly large reward (1,000 points) for completing a succession of weekly and daily quests.

There's uncomparable hitch: Dissimilar every other Rewards task, you mustiness redeem Gimpy Go along Quests manually. Separate Microsoft Rewards points that you make are automatically added to your number. You don't take to backlog on to your Xbox to coif this, however, As the Xbox Game Pass app for Android allows you to redeem Bespeak points, besides.

Microsoft Rewards Xbox Game Pass Quest — Put on't forget to turn in your Quests for extra points.

Another ways to win Rewards points

Until recently, Microsoft would send you a weekly email with the opportunity to win Rewards points by clicking through golf links, as well as the occasional "hidden link" which awarded even out more. That seems to have at rest aside in favor of the expanded Xbox opportunities.

There are occasional crumbs hidden away, also. Microsoft Rewards extension for Chrome promises some additional points, and the Bing app for Android used to (that implementation has been broken on my headphone for months).

How many points can you earn from Microsoft Rewards per month?

Microsoft Rewards is always in flux, so the value of unshared tasks and the total amount of Rewards points available is perpetually changing. Sharp-eyelike Rewards hawks keep an eye out for discounts happening gift cards, stretching your Rewards even farther. Special promotions constantly pop up.

With that said, one member of Reddit calculated that you can earn up to 18,000 points per calendar month, or almost $22.50. At that point, the total of effort needed to chaseevery Rewards point wouldn't appear to be deserving your time.

With-it Rewards users, so, balance their time against their potential rewards. Sure, you can plausibly afford an extra $5 per calendar month for Microsoft's Game Pass for PC. Simply there's something oddly pleasing nigh just "getting it gratis"—and Microsoft Rewards scratches that itch.

This story was originally published on Aug. 6, and updated to reflect the change in Microsoft Game Pass for PC's status.