Although Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is in charge of a huge video game division, he still finds plenty of time to game throughout the year. If you are wondering just how many hours he's racked up in all things Xbox this year, he's now shared his official 'Year in Review' data for 2023.
All up, Phil put in 917 hours of playtime into Xbox games, with his most played genre being "role playing". His top game of the year was Bethesda's Starfield, spending a whopping 148 hours in the game followed by Blizzard's Diablo 4 where he's been slaying demons for 143 hours now.
As impressive as it is, it may not necessarily come as a surprise if you've closely followed Phil's gaming career. He's known to sink long hours into many other games like Destiny 2 and by the looks of it, he's even been playing the recent Xbox Game Pass release Remnant 2.
Just yesterday, he also showed off his level 100 Druid he's been working on in the latest season of Diablo 4. You can see how to access your own Xbox 'Year in Review' data for 2023 in our previous post here on Pure Xbox:
How do your playtimes this year compare to the Microsoft Gaming CEO's hours? Tell us in the comments.
Comments 37
How much did Jim Ryan play last year? 😂😜🫣😝
@THE_VITTLER
Jim's play time couldn't be logged because most of it was done offline, whilst flying around the world seeing market regulators.😅😉
Edited: I'm surprised at the number of hours Spencer managed 😄.
Well played Jim. That’s an average of 2.5 hours a day.
I honestly thought that would just be an average time for most people, but it’s top 5%. I’m at 350 hours and in the top 15%. Meaning most Xbox players play less than an hour a day. In fact, most play less than hour a week more likely. I’m a bit shocked by that.
I really want to get starfield on PC, but i dont know how my pc will run it.
I have a 1080ti graphics card in it.
Thats what is holding me back, because i just dont know.
Seriously impressive numbers. Especially as we know he plays on other platforms too.
@Kienda most players only play a few times a week, certainly not most days. Enthusiasts here are the minority, almost all likely in the top 15%, probably most in the top 5% and if they showed it some in the top 1%, not that this is a good thing.
@The-Chosen-one Depends on the rest of your specs (CPU, ram etc.) and what resolution you play at (1080p, 1440p, etc) but 1080p @ 30fps should be easily doable at medium / low settings regardless. A bit higher if the rest of your specs are good and you don’t have performance bottlenecks.
917 hours = almost 38 consecutive days (nonstop) of gaming. Does he even work? No wonder PS5 is outselling xbox 3 to 1 (9 to 1 in Europe)
@Dr_ENT Erm… you’re a troll right?
Even as a CEO of a massive company he should still have enough down time to play that much… easily.
There are 52 weekends per year (104 days). Not to mention his down town after a busy working day, plus annual leave and national holidays.
Maybe get off your high horse. People need lives out side of work.
@themightyant yeah, I guess.
I think though that PlayStation has a more engaged audience. I could be wrong. But I wonder if these stats are skewed a bit by lots of people having “Xbox” but it’s just on their PC for one game they play, for example. Or people who dabbled with gaming on cloud.
If this is just Xbox console users. I’d be surprised.
@Kienda your post made me feel better about my 708hrs, less than 2.5 hrs a day. I don’t watch much TV as is mainly rubbish on and really do love playing games, so much better than TV.
I’ve always loved gaming ever since I picked up the game pad as a little boy. Im 42 and have been gaming my whole life, I don’t think I’ll ever stop until the day I die. I’ve just picked up Baldurs gate and am eyeing up Alan wake 2 next lol.
@Kienda I get what you are saying, but I don't that is skewing results, that's just the reality, some only play a little for whatever reason whether it's engagement or a second platform. Much like we know Phil plays Nintendo, PlayStation and other platforms too this is only a part of his game time, albeit likely the largest slice.
Removed - unconstructive feedback
@Kienda I would imagine that Playstations gamers in general are very similar to Xbox gamers - you'll have those that play daily for hours on end and others that may only play an hour or two (average) a week due work/life commitments etc.
Its possible to imagine that Playstation gamers may spend 'more' time (average) on each game they play - but Xbox gamers may play 'more' games overall due to Game Pass for example. If you only have 1000hrs to game a year, that could be spread over half a dozen or so games on PS for example or double the Games on Xbox but the 'engagement' is the same even if that is 'spread' out of more games...
Then you have others that may have multiple Platforms - maybe a PC and Console so only play Exclusives which equate to 1-2hrs a week. Some may only get a few hours a week maximum to 'game' too...
917 hours on Xbox ....newb lol
Mine was also Starfield. We're practically twins.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it isn’t just Phil who uses the account.
Yay i'm over 100 hours ahead of Phil!
We all know Phil loves to play video games. It gives him incredible insight into his brand and when he is talking to other heads of companies they know they can’t bs him.
He already said that he's essentially playing in the evening, instead of watching TV, like most people do.
It's his passion, and it's his job.
You've got to respect the man on that !
Yes he dose i follow him and games played the man runs the show after all i respect his efforts and playtime.
I wish I had that amount of time to play Xbox.
@Kienda unfortunately it's old folks like me with kids and a busy job that bring it down. I have weeks where I don't even play it at all anymore. I'd say 2-3 hours per week is a good week for me. If i could, i would play a ton more...but I can't.
@ValkyriaProfile definitely seems to be the way to go.
I wonder how much of his playtime happened while on a plane or in hotel rooms on business trips. Im pretty sure he rocks the xscreen Series A and all the portables for gamepass
Well, that's more than my Xbox and Switch hours combined. TBH I haven't have time to play this year, but still.
My most played game is battlefield 2042 so that should tell people all they need to know about the state of the games industry and in particular fps games when that Frankenstein of a battlefield is my most played
Did he though? My "hours played" on that thing Xbox sent out were hugely inaccurate.
@Kienda troll or not, that comment was pretty funny
Wow that is some serious play time. Not sure what more to say then that is more then I have played this year and then I have played a lot.
It's a lot! I'm a bit behind but not too far. My pattern is kind of don't play for myself for a few weeks then session something hard. Starfield was a big one. So was cyberpunk. I played a lot of DMZ. And my stats are boosted playing minecraft and lego games with my kids. Also subnautica... I played a lot of both.
Come to think of it I bet Phil can justify gaming sessions at work. QC and research... Who would say no?
No wonder nothing gets done. Nearly 1000 hours is insane.
@The-Chosen-one should run it.
I managed just over 300 hours in total between all 3 platforms. Nintendo, coming out on top with half those hours. Portability has become very important for me. Recently got the Playstation Portal so that will likely boost my PS hours next year.
@blockfight is the portal worth it?
I’m finding I have limited alone time with the TV because the wife wants to watch or the kids steal the Xbox so I was thinking the portal might help me just get some extra screen time.
@Steel76
Thanks for the tip, i will do that, try it first on gamepass and if it runs well i will buy it.
@Kienda As long as you want what it does, the portal is a good bit of kit.
Mine is literally just so myself and the misses can both be playing our games on the sofa next to each other, and its been really good for that.
@Kienda for me it's totally worth it. Feels very comfy to use. I've brought it to the office and family home to use too and it runs brilliant. But I mostly use it on the couch while the TV is occupied.
Test out remote play on your phone or laptop though before you invest. Just because it works well for me doesn't mean it will run brilliant for you.
@THE_VITTLER WGAF how much Jim Ryan plays? I'll take a head of a game division that is a d*** and doesn't play a single video game, yet their studios consistently put out good to great games over a nice guy gamer whose studios put out fewer games and those games are mediocre to bad. I wonder if Phil's version of Starfield was as broken as mine?
@blockfight @Titntin thanks for the replies. I think I might start with some remote play and see how it goes.
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