Despite Microsoft’s recent stumble over the Xbox Live Gold subscription price hike, Redmond’s recent years have been very positive. The introduction of the Xbox Game Pass service has certainly contributed in large part to this constant growth, above all thanks to its absolutely consumer-friendly nature that has allowed many users to always have a huge choice of games available – some even available from day one – at a monthly price affordable enough for anyone.
In a tweet by well-known insider Daniel Ahmad, several interesting details were leaked from a recent conference call by Microsoft executives on Q2 of the fiscal year 2021, including the achievement of 18 million subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass service.
Obviously, this boom in registrations is also partly due to the recent offer that allows you to try the service for 3 months at a cost of only $1, but in any case, these are mind-boggling numbers that once again confirm the excellent marketing move of the American giant.
Also, Ahmad mentions the fact that Xbox has managed to make $3.5 billion from software sales alone, certainly helped by the release of flagship titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Also from the conference call:
– $2 billion in revenue from third party content this quarter (Which leaves around $1.5bn for first party content / subscriptions).
– 100 million Xbox Live Monthly Active Users (PC/Mobile/Console).
– Best launch month for Xbox console. (X|S)
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 26, 2021
In the conference call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sang the praises of the Xbox division, confirming that there was a 51% growth in earnings in the second quarter of the current fiscal year alone, with an incredible jump in sales of hardware that rose to +86%, certainly helped by the excellent launch of Xbox Series X/S which was confirmed as the best launch ever for a console from the Redmond company.
In short, it would really seem that Microsoft is finally getting back on its feet after a not exactly rosy reputation obtained during the eighth video game generation, and with a net gain of about 15 billion dollars the company faces this 2021 with an even more combative spirit and eager to unseat the dominance that Sony has obtained over the last few years, thanks also to the quantity and quality of software houses that are now an integral part of Xbox Game Studios.
