Xbox Console Sales Struggling As Hardware Revenue Nosedives At Microsoft

As a follow-up to this morning's more positive financial news about Xbox, we have some unfortunate figures from the team's hardware division. For the second quarter in a row, Microsoft's console revenue has dropped by a staggering amount, as Xbox Series X|S struggles in the market during 2024 so far.

As per the team's latest fiscal report, Xbox hardware revenue is down 42% on the same time last year. This follows a 31% drop during the last quarter — at the beginning of the calendar year — making 2024 a tough time for Microsoft and its Xbox hardware business.

We perhaps shouldn't be too surprised by this, even if the drop off is steeper than we expected it to be. The company has changed strategy a lot in recent months, focusing on Xbox Cloud Gaming and also bringing some pretty big games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles this year. Despite three new Xbox Series variants coming later this year, and a powerful next-gen system in the works, the overall focus does seem to be moving away from console hardware for Xbox.

As for software and services, Microsoft hasn't provided updated numbers for Xbox Game Pass in this financial report, which likely means that the service hasn't substantially grown since the last quarter. Our last update came earlier this year, when the team revealed that the combined tiers of Xbox Game Pass have around 34 million subscribers as of February 2024.

What do you make of all this? Stay calm and discuss the news down below.

[source theverge.com]