Microsoft has offered a glimpse at how much Xbox Game Pass actually makes
Heaps of cash money.
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What you need to know
Sometimes, Xbox Game Pass seems a little too good to be true. Flying in the face of traditional gaming revenue models, with Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft is offering thousands upon thousands of dollars' worth of content for $10 dollars a month. It’s potentially even cheaper if you factor in the upcomingXbox Game Pass Friends & Familyaccounts as well.
In any case,Xbox Game Passisn’t going anywhere. I’ve seen analysts and pundits rally around the idea that the service must be burning through cash hand over fist in order to offer the value it does, and that may still be true. But as noticed byTweaktown, we now have a glimpse at roughly how much revenue Xbox Game Pass is actually generating.
Microsoft is currently trying to get its massiveXbox Activision Blizzard mergerthrough regulatory bodies around the globe. In order to make its legal arguments, certain data points Microsoft typically doesn’t share with its shareholders publicly is making its way into the public domain, as a result of these discussions. It turns out that Xbox Game Pass is making a fair bit of dosh.
According to Brazil’s regulatory body CADE, Xbox Game Pass' revenue from subscriptions stands at $2.9 billion dollars in the fiscal period ending January 2021. Tweaktown noted that it accounts for 18% of Microsoft’s revenue from gaming for that fiscal year, which would have put Xbox Game Pass subscribers at around the 18-19 million mark. The last official figure we got on Xbox Game Pass subscribers came last January, where Redmondrevealed it had hit 25 million users.
It should be noted, however, that this figure only includes users on the console versions of Xbox Game Pass, with PC Game Pass figures omitted. It’s also hard to know the exact breakdown of this revenue figure. Does it include purchases of games in the post-Game Pass discount period? Does it include microtransactional sales and in-game content sales for titles that are in Xbox Game Pass? Or is it representative purely of the subscriber figures across Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which are $10 and $15 apiece?
And sure, revenue also doesn’t show us exactly how much Microsoft is spending to produce that turnover. What it does show us unequivocally is that there is serious and continued demand for this type of subscription service. Whether it’s Xbox Game Pass for consoles,Xbox cloud gaming, or PC gaming, the service is likely here for the long haul.
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Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow onTwitter (X)andThreads, and listen to hisXB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!
