Interesting information will continue to emerge if the South American organization has unconditionally approved the historic $69 billion acquisition. As Derek Strickland pointed out on the Tweaktown website, Microsoft revealed that Xbox Game Pass subscriptions generated $2.9 billion in revenue on consoles. Unpublished figures can be compared to all of Microsoft’s video game revenue and subscriptions of its direct competitors.
This $2.9 billion figure, thus excluding PC users or revenue indirectly generated by Game Pass (such as purchases of games or additional content) represents 18% of the total revenue Xbox will record in 2021 ($16.28 billion, a record year) . As a reminder, as Microsoft officially announced, the number of Xbox Game Pass users in January 2021 is 18 million. This number has since increased to 25 million in January 2022.
A central pillar of Microsoft’s strategy, Xbox Game Pass aspires to become the most important subscription service in the industry, thanks to acquisitions that only Microsoft can afford, but has a little way to go before it catches up to more established competitors. In 2021, Sony Interactive Entertainment produces $3.6 billion PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscriptions (15% of PlayStation’s total revenue for the fiscal year). Remember, these two subscriptions have been combined and represent nearly 50 million subscribers.
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