Microsoft is still hard at work making sure that its Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through, with international regulatory agencies combing through the company’s finances. Because of this, new details about Microsoft and Xbox’s programs have been found and they point to some success with the Game Pass services.
First spotted by TweakTown, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) approved the merger but released a public document outlining why they believed it was a good idea. According to the documents, Xbox made $2.9 billion through Game Pass in 2021 alone. This isn’t all profit since it doesn’t account for what Xbox had to spend, but it is still impressive.
TweakTown estimates that Xbox as a company made $16.28 billion in 2021, which is about 18 percent of the company’s total revenue for the year. That’s not bad for a program that continues to hand out $1 a month subscriptions like they’re candy. It seems that enough players are sticking around that Microsoft is getting a significant boost to its gaming revenue.
What’s even more remarkable is that is just for Xbox consoles and not players who subscribe to the PC version of the program. While the PC revenue likely isn’t higher, it could be close due to the similar number of games the service offers and the range of PC players.
Xbox Game Pass subscriber growth has grown to 25 million as of January 2022. As Microsoft acquires more companies and adds more and more games to its service, it’s likely that the program will continue to grow. But as competitors like PlayStation launch their own services, we may see Xbox’s hold on the subscription market falter.
