During Microsoft’s quarterly report today, new statistics were shared on Xbox services. While that’s standard practice and there’s usually a few small tidbits of worthwhile information shared, today definitely took us by surprise as it relates to Xbox Live and Game Pass in particular.
First, it was reported that Xbox Live now has nearly 90 million monthly active users. If you’re wondering why that’s notable, it’s because as of the the 4th fiscal quarter of 2019, the figure was 65 million. Therefore, Live has grown over 40% in the last several months which compared to prior YoY growth (shown below), is extraordinary.
Next is Xbox Game Pass. While we’ve heard that the service has been a resounding success for Xbox, we’ve only had hints as to how many subscribers there actually are. Well it seems the number is over 10 million which again, is incredibly impressive. Merely for comparison, it was reported late last year that PS Now had only just broken 1 million subscribers.
This information comes from Tom Warren and was echoed by Xbox VP Aaron Greenberg.
So proud of what this team has accomplished and especially grateful to our fans for the support and trust on this journey! 💚🙅🏼♂️ https://t.co/VjpZP6Vw0K
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) April 29, 2020
Our Take
We’ve heard from both PlayStation and Xbox that game sales and services have seen an increase due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. With tens of millions of people having to stay at home, gaming has seemingly broadened its market. No matter how you look at it, this is very impressive growth for Xbox services and it’s coming at the right time with the new Xbox hardware right around the corner.
