With a revenue surge exceeding $3.9 billion in gaming from July through September, Microsoft has smashed previous records, largely propelled by the quarter’s star release, Starfield.
The previous record was $3.6 billion, which the company set in the first quarter of the last financial year. It beat it by $300 million, a nine percent uptick compared to last year, according to the company’s Q1 2024 report today.
Starfield was the driving force behind it, with regional reports and estimates suggesting millions of copies sold, in addition to attracting millions of others to the Game Pass subscription. The Bethesda title also fueled a 13 percent revenue surge in Xbox content and services compared to the previous year, and that’s despite hardware sale’s seven percent dip.
Microsoft also highlighted Starfield’s contribution to a record spike in Game Pass play hours this quarter and a one-day subscription record on its launch day, though exact figures were kept under wraps.
However, the tech giant did reveal Starfield has had more than 11 million players to date, with PC players making up half of the numbers. This means more than a million players have bought it since Sep. 20, when the count stood at 10 million. While its growth pace may have slowed down, the upward trend continues despite worries about a declining player base on Steam.
With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, the spotlight now shines on the upcoming quarter, especially with the highly anticipated release of Modern Warfare 3 on Nov. 10, which is poised to be a blockbuster.
Should the buzz about it continue, the next major Call of Duty release might help Microsoft beat this fresh record set with Starfield, hinting its hefty acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard, priced at $7.5 billion and $68.7 billion respectively, could pay off in the long run—though all this remains to be seen, for the time being.
