Still, sales of games and add-ons fell 3% to $2.8 billion, but continued growth in Xbox Game Pass subscribers partially offset the decline in game sales (both . first party That third party) and user engagement (time spent watching games).
However, Microsoft has benefited from the improved usability of the Xbox Series. Evidence of this is that hardware sales for the quarter were $813 million, compared to $710 million in the year-ago quarter, up 13% year over year. Microsoft mentioned the increase in sales, but also the price of the machine, which seems to point to a revival in the form of the Xbox Series X.
The rest of the session saw CEO Satya Nadella share some stats, starting with strong annual growth in PC Game Pass subscriptions (+159%) and the fact that 20 million people tested Xbox Cloud Gaming. We also learned that the Xbox Series S is the preferred gateway into the Xbox ecosystem, as nearly half of buyers of this model have never owned an Xbox before.
In the first quarter alone, Microsoft as a whole achieved $50 billion in revenue (up 11 percent) and $17.6 billion in net income (down 14 percent). Note that Microsoft Cloud represents half of this staggering turnover.