This is a weird comparison. You just wanted to compare GamePass to something which is successful right? To validate it.. I get it.
Difference being Netflix adds about 30-40 million subscribers a year. And it's a completely different media with difference audience too.
Also had to borrow $15 billion to finance content which hasn't paid back yet.
Aside from that.. do you really think that gaming numbers exceed the number of people who just want to sit and watch a TV show occasionally?
Nope.
The problem many people have is they fail to understand Microsoft is literally, right before your very eyes, inventing a new business model for videogames. Simply because it might not seem like it makes sense for many, this doesn't mean it won't be highly successful and sustainable for the long term. The $15 billion you reference (not sure how true this is, but will go ahead with your number and assume its true along with the fact that it hasn't paid back yet) could just as easily be backed by Xbox's parent company Microsoft. If the business model has risks, Microsoft would seem to be the perfect company to help provide a powerful financial lifeline to help it get to where it needs to be where it can become as powerful in gaming as Netflix is in streaming television shows and movies. The time they needed to be bought was the Xbox One generation. The perfect storm that's needed to truly realize the full potential of what Xbox Game Pass can be is Bethesda releases that are now first party and will end up being exclusives to Xbox and PC, and a very impressive looking set of big releases coming from Xbox Game Studios.
You typically see one major fallout singleplayer game and one major elder scrolls single player game per generation if you're lucky. Xbox is poised and positioned to potentially see 2 of each backed up by Halo Infinite, Perfect Dark, Fable, Everwild, Hellbade, Doom, Ghostwire, Deathloop, Dishonored, Wolfenstein etc.
Avowed screams an Elder Scrolls like title.
Elder Scrolls 6 from Bethesda is likely coming this generation.
Starfield is presumably Fallout in space.
And we could potentially get a more ambitious Outer Worlds sequel this generation.
One of the concerns about Netflix like services are that things will leave the service. Every single game we know about and expect that's coming from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda the day they release on Xbox Series consoles will also be day one releases on Game Pass and will be there permanently. The thing about Game Pass is that games and gamers are different from tv shows and movies and the people who consume them. Games and gamers actually make Xbox Game Pass an even more likely success than Netflix was. How? Simple. More big games. Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda together are going to deliver this. And with each moment that those games drop day one on game pass and stay on game pass, game pass will become that much more powerful, that much harder for third party publishers to ignore because they will want in on some of that excitement. More money will be generated because many more users will join, and that will directly lead to even more financial flexibility for Xbox to pull the trigger on cutting some big deals. With Xbox Game Pass the Xbox division need not go ask corporate for some money to wheel and deal as often as they might have needed to before. Xbox Game Pass gives them a resource they have never had before, not even with Xbox Live. There was no desire from third party publishers to drop big releases onto xbox live for free before, at least nowhere near like what's transpiring now with Game Pass.
Game Pass has created a new exciting opportunity that third party publishers and a lot of development studios want to go test, where they see opportunity to get a better return from their game than sticking to the standard physical and digital sale business model that has become so common. Microsoft has created a third option - a subscription service deal that leads to many more people trying and playing their game while still being able to sell their game the old fashioned way. Square Enix has already succeeded in making many, many more people interested in playing Outriders than would have otherwise cared to give it a go. I'm giving this game a go and I had no damn interest in it the entire time. I was on a total Bethesda kick where I was replaying Skyrim and then planned to give Fallout 4 another spin, then eventually go to Prey, then Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online. Game Pass got me to put a pause on that and take Outriders for a spin. I'm almost certain Square Enix likes what they see. People are overloading those servers to go play this game.