Xbox Cloud Gaming Now Supports 1440p Streaming on Xbox Consoles

Xbox Cloud Gaming now supports 1440p streaming for supported games on Xbox consoles. This higher streaming quality, which requires an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, is now rolling out on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X, and Xbox One S consoles (sorry, OG Xbox One owners).

Microsoft previously made 1440p streaming for supported Xbox games available on the Xbox PC app, supported web browsers, as well as select Fire TV devices, LG TVs, and Samsung TVs. Strangely, Xbox gamers were last in line to get that feature, but maybe this is something the new Xbox leadership team may want to change going forward.

If you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, streaming games at the maximum 1440p quality with a higher bitrate may consume up to 14GB of data per hour, compared to 9GB per hour for a 1080p stream. In my own experience in games like Death Stranding Director’s Cut or Gears of War: Reloaded, 1440p streaming makes a real difference, with everything looking much sharper.

Microsoft’s 1440p/60FPS maximum quality still pales in comparison to the 4K/240FPS quality available on Nvidia’s GeForce Now Ultimate tier. Nvidia’s cloud gaming service is also cheaper than Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at just $19.99/month, though you can only stream eligible digital games you own, as well as supported games on Microsoft’s PC Game Pass library.

In addition to these Xbox Cloud Gaming quality updates on Xbox consoles, Microsoft also announced today that more Xbox games have been added to the “Stream your own game” library. The latest additions include the freshly-released High on Life 2, which is also available on Game Pass, as well as Death Howl, Reanimal, Ride 6, and Styx: Blades of Greed.