Earlier this week, Microsoft reached out to ourselves here at Pure Xbox (and seemingly a series of other outlets) aiming to provide some context about a report headlined "Microsoft’s Gaming Business Falls Short, Despite Activision" - by an outlet known as The Information.
Now, we'll be honest... we haven't seen that report in full! It's locked behind a $299 paywall, so all we've come across are snippets that have been posted elsewhere - such as a suggestion that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was considering winding down Xbox entirely back in 2021. Here's the original story that we published on Pure Xbox:
In Microsoft's follow-up comments, which are summarised in an "update" to the story linked above, Satya Nadella's mention from back in June 2021 that the company was "all in on gaming" was referenced, amongst other things.
Beyond that though, the focus was on the present day. The most interesting stat for us is that Xbox engagement is at an all-time high as we enter 2025 across Xbox, PC and mobile, with the company racking up 500 million monthly players.
Xbox Game Pass also received a massive boost (unsurprisingly) from the addition of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - the game's launch marked the best day ever for the service, and set a record number of subscriptions on its release day.
Here's what Nadella had to say about these milestones a few months ago in an earnings report:
"We set new records for monthly active users in the quarter, as more players than ever play our games across devices and on the Xbox platform. Game Pass also set a new Q1 record for total revenue and average revenue per subscriber. And, as we look ahead, our IP across our studios has never been stronger. Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day."
So, yeah... Microsoft's come out swinging here a little bit with these facts! We're now particularly interested to see things fare in the next earnings release which arrives on January 29th, where we should learn more about how the likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Stalker 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 have affected Game Pass in recent months, as well as console sales and the Xbox division's ever-increasing content and service revenue.
Whatever happens though, it should be a fascinating year ahead for the business.
What are your thoughts on these Xbox stats and figures? Tell us in the comments down below.
Comments 22
"racking up 500 million monthly players."
Isn't this just mostly because of Candy Crush?
It’s a shocker, but when you have games to play, you use the hardware. I used my Xbox more this last quarter than I have since the month Halo Infinite came out, no joke.
People don't actually believes them, right?
I don't quite get the hyper fixation on a business's performance that we see nowadays. OnlUnless you have stock for said business. I like what Xbox offers and their vision because of the value it provides me as a consumer. That's all. Musings of whether or not Microsoft toyed with shutting it down in the past doesn't matter to me enjoying games in the platform now. Nor does how they're performing as a business and if they are meeting internal profit goals. I'm stop playing games on Xbox, when it stops being fun to do so. Microsoft now says the "when everyone plays, we all win" line (maybe not exact but you know it). Well that's true of Xbox. My gaming hours and purchases help it, but Xbox's overall revenues don't help me. It isn't a vice versa situation. The industry seems especially fixated on Xbox's performance specifically. As if a business unit making 15 billion is a small startup. I don't even think people talked about Netflix when it first popped up as compared to Game Pass now nearly a decade after it launched.
@WildConcept6 I agree people can be too hyper-fixated on the business performance, and a lot of that is just from point scoring fanboys who want a metric they can shake in their 'enemies' faces.
But I do think it's more than that too. Microsoft have been ripping up the rule book with things like Game Pass and Cloud, but with that comes potential instability and worry. Whether rightly or wrongly many Xbox gamers are concerned Microsoft will forget the console, which is where their interest is. They made their choice of platform and it is tied to Microsoft's business decisions.
More widely I like to see publishers like Sony making large profits because it likely means they will invest more money back into games and the larger the profits the more risks they are likely to take. Granted those risks may not be what I personally want, like live services, but I am glad they are trying to break their mould somewhat, else you end up stagnant like Ubisoft.
And on an individual game/studio level profits and success usually mean larger budgets and larger scope for their next game.
So I do think there are many valid reasons for gamers to be interested in business performance, even if some take it too far and for the wrong reasons.
Here is the thing I feel Microsoft not understand (other than how to NOT successfully market their products or have a well thought out PLAN for their products) is why would a third party developer even want develop for Microsoft since their sales going stink on Xbox.
No, I'm wrong. That's crazy talk! Right?!?
Well, not so fast. I'll explain.
Game pass (you know that "best deal in gaming" rubbish propaganda that's thrown around so much) is hindering Xbox. Games lose, what did the report say, 80% of their sales? That's huge.
But so what! Game doesn't have to be on game pass, so take that to your theory! Again...not so fast. Not read a statistic, but I'd bet a lot of people are, meh, I'll wait for it to hit game pass since I'm being forced into paying $23+ a month for it as it is. So developers losing sales even on that front.
And, of course, the big elephant in the room is, why should a person even buy a game on Xbox at this point since Microsoft is giving every hint, sign, message, that next gen very well may be their exit and who knows what's going to happen. Our libraries be around? Will online servers be cut immediately? Will my games even play then? But, hey, that's the wondrous beauty of an all digital world, right? It's the greatest thing ever to just buy a license to a product...instead of owning it.
But that's conversation for another time.
So Game Pass hit its peak with the inclusion of BO6...! Shocker! The question is, how many people will have remained on the Service 3 to 6 months later? I say 3 to 6 months because Indiana Jones will have muddied the waters somewhat because any huge drop off may have been prevented by people buying a 3 month Game Pass term, rather than a single month, so as to cover the release windows of both BO6 and Indiana Jones. Thus, if anything, now is the time that Game Pass numbers could be falling just as considerably as they rose when BO6 came out. Thing is, we probably won't ever find out, because whereas Microsoft used to tell us how many consoles were sold, and how many Game Pass subscribers there were, they stopped telling us just as we were starting to hear of there being problems with sales and then with subscriber numbers. Understandably, Microsoft love to tell us when things are going well, but they just say nothing when things aren't, and instead allow all the rumours to speak for them. That silence, and those rumours, have caused no end of problems for Microsoft over the past few years...
If they are doing better than ever as a business, great, because I had a blast on Xbox last year and I want this to keep going. Xbox is the best ecosystem for console players right now, all things considered, and that is what should matter to us. With that I don't mean that I don't enjoy games on other systems, even old ones. I mean all the features we always talk about: free and enhanced backwards compatibility, free remasters if you own the Xbox One version, FPS Boost, cross-play, cross-buy, free cross-save, excellent controller, Game Pass with games like we had last year, etc.
I know many hate Satya Nadella, but I doubt he's the only person in the company that makes decisions. You can rest assured that they are fully invested in gaming. It makes perfect sense, because what else are those 40+ studios for?
@jolteon23 Candy Crush, yes, and also Halo, Diablo, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, Minecraft...
WildConcept6 wrote:
Maybe because some fans of the competing system want Xbox to fail miserably.
But Sony is selling more consoles so Xbox is dead no???👹
Almost 300 million of this is through King games like Candy Crush though....
@Ricky-Spanish They're counting King games like Candy Crush, which is almost 300 million MAU in and of itself.
The Xbox consoles are factually selling pretty bad currently.
@mac_da_man Normally, when someone says something, is not meant to reflect humanity's consensus. For you to disagree with anything positive about Xbox that I say is as predictable as the sun going up and down every day (from our perspective), but you don't need to hound me because of your preferences.
@somnambulance Nuh uh, Phil Spencer said games won't win a console war...
(I am taking his comment somewhat out of context but my God, what an outrageously stupid comment to make or believe.)
@Banjo- "Maybe because some fans of the competing system want Xbox to fail miserably."
There is definitely some of this, and a lot of armchair/internet user executives making comments (I'm one of them) as if they know the best way Xbox should be run.. but I will at least say in my case my negativity comes from a place of concern. I do not want to see Xbox die, drop out of the console race, or squander potential they have. I guess you can say it's on the tough love side.
Sorry for butting into this conversation. I just wanted to add some context for at least a few people around here who regularly come off grumpy (which I know I'm part of too.)
@Elbow Yes, I know, there are many grumpy (using your word) users that I don't mind having respectful discussions with (old, beaver, mighty...), unless I'm getting tired LOL, but there are some users whose interactions with me have been 100% negative and repetitive every single time.
The golden rule for me is if all the replies are negative and a disagreement, what's the point in interacting? Their goal is not discussing or trying to understand or explain something to somebody, but to pester them and troll. Imagine being hounded because you like Xbox, on a Xbox site. I would never do that to a Nintendo fan on NL nor to a Sony fan on PS. I'm a good guy.
What Phil Spencer said, more or less, was that even if Xbox had excellent games, it would be almost impossible to get excellent scores and compete with Sony's and Nintendo's output because of the critics and media favouring them. Although he did mention the scores affecting sales, he wasn't as straightforward. Some people thought he was saying that he didn't care about Xbox having high-quality games, but he meant the opposite. He has a point because Xbox games are often underrated. Hopefully, the extra severity (the Xbox tax) when reviewing Xbox games will disappear completely.
@WildConcept6 100% agree the hyper fixation on MS is weird. I think people don't like them as they are financially the world's most successful company, and the most successful gaming division by profit. People are fixated on console sales when my kids and thier friends don't care about console like our generation does
@darylb24 Even when Sony is at its worst in terms of net debt, cancelled games, closed studios, new games output (most important thing for gamers) and first-party sales ratio, while Xbox is doing better than ever, all the negativity focuses on Xbox, somehow. Strange fixation on Xbox not delivering while delivering...
270-300 million are Candy Crush players. Look it up.
@TheGameThrifter I know that hence why I was being sarcastic and this site talks about it constantly!!
I'm just making the point that Xbox isn't as dead as some think/want regardless of console sales!
@Banjo- It's just easier/more fun for people to put down anyone who trys to make out Xbox isn't doing that bad I find myself on this site as well just keyboard warriors determined to prove people wrong because if Nintendo and PlayStation are doing so well Xbox must be doing badly and any attempt to say they aren't isn't acceptable for some!
@Ricky-Spanish This community is very small and it's too obvious what each one is doing here. We don't need to be reminded of their animosity and disapproval constantly. If at least they had something interesting to say, but it's always the same poor argument. Why dedicate so much of your time to something you don't like?
Microsoft doesn't need to sell as many consoles as PS. Those metrics have expired. Microsoft is a behemoth in the software and hardware market now. Comparisons with Dreamcast are hilarious. I have been reading about the death of Xbox since Xbox One launched, over a decade ago. It's repetitive and pointless. Let's enjoy the present. We don't know where we'll be tomorrow.
@Banjo- Exactly hope you have a good weekend buddy 👍
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