Subscription is the new black in the gaming world, and Microsoft is leading the pack in its game subscription service. Xbox Game Pass has been ruling the roost on both console and PC.
While Microsoft has been pretty forthcoming about its latest success—even going so far as to reveal this past January that it had 25 million users—it has not broken down these figures or provided detailed financial numbers.
But this latest reveal provides a hint at how much Microsoft’s all-you-can-eat gaming subscription service actually earns.
As noted by TweakTown, in order to get its massive Xbox Activision Blizzard merger through regulatory bodies across the globe, Microsoft is making legal arguments and sharing certain data points that it typically does not share with shareholders.
One such data point was shared with CADE, the Brazilian regulatory body, where Redmond revealed that its subscription revenue stood at $2.9 billion in the fiscal period ending January 2021.
This figure accounts for 18% of the company’s revenue from gaming that fiscal year, which puts the Xbox Game Pass subscriber count around 18-19 million. It’s worth mentioning that this figure only includes users of the console version of Xbox Game Pass, with PC Game Pass figures omitted.
Still, it remains hard to get an accurate picture of the company’s success in this domain until we get an exact breakdown of this revenue.
We do not know whether this figure includes purchases of games after their Game Pass discount period or microtransactions and in-game content sales. Or do these numbers purely represent the subscriber figure across the game subscription service that costs $10 and $15 per month?
And most certainly, it does not show how much Microsoft spends to produce this turnover.
But it does serve as undisputed confirmation that there is a definite demand for this type of subscription service, which offers thousands of dollars of content for $10 a month, particularly when taken in combination with the strong standing of the Xbox brand.
And more importantly, it is another hint that the subscription service is likely here to stay!
