Microsoft's Gaming Revenue Grows 50% in Latest Quarter, Xbox Hardware Revenue Jumps 232% - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2021 / 1,949 Views
Microsoft has released its earnings report for the third quarter of the 2021 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2021. Revenue for the company increased 19 percent year-over-year to $41.7 billion, while operating income was up 31 percent to $17.0 billion. GAP net income was up 44 percent to $15.5 billion.
Microsoft's gaming revenue increased 50 percent year-over-year to $3.53 billion. Xbox content & services grew 34 percent, driven by strong first and third-party titles, as well as growth in Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox hardware revenue jumped 232 percent year-over-year, driven by the continued demand for the Xbox Series X|S.
This is the best March quarter for Microsoft's gaming division since they started reporting the numbers separately about six years ago, according to video games industry senior analyst at Niko Partners Daniel Ahmad.
Microsoft's gaming revenue over the past 12 months ending March 31, 2021 for the first time ever reached $15 billion. This is up from $10.3 billion for the 12 months ending March 31, 2020.
Microsoft reported gaming revenue of $3.53bn for the quarter ending Mar 31, 2021, up 50% YoY.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 27, 2021
Xbox content & services revenue up 34% YoY, driven by strong software sales + Game Pass growth
Xbox hardware was up 232% YoY due to Series X | S demand + favorable comp vs last year pic.twitter.com/D8QtQ24Xj5
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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So using a best guess of figures
- Using VGchartz graph on xbox S/X sales.....its about 1.2million in sales (roughly).....so at $350ish per console you're looking at roughly $350million for the quarter.
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Gamepass with even 25million @ 14.99/month (all on full paid ultimate) x3 months only adds $1.12 billion
Latest Gen consoles therefore are approx 10% of sales
Gamepass therefore is approx 33% of sales
Remaining 57% is gold/individual game sales/services/hardware. Does show how pathetically small console sales are. Everyone raves about gamepass too but its about a 1/3 and thats assuming everyone is on the top tariff which the vast majority are not. So really its probably less than 30% - growing but so are costs.
Anyway - thats my 5min analysis :)
each full priced game you buy outside Game Pass microsoft makes $18, so that's where most of the money comes in, look at Sony, they sold 5 to 1 third party
Need some real numbers ffs. Need subs and unit sold. What’s so hard?
Great although expected since X1 was on the end of its life. Congrats.
MS is usually very forthcoming on Game Pass sub numbers especially during the conference call after the results go out but this is the first time they have shied away from disclosing sub numbers in quite some time. Perhaps that Twitter rumor of 22/23M subs is inaccurate after all..
I saw someone else mention the same thing very strange.
Hmmm that's definitely possible. It's just very different behavior is all. If it was indeed 23M as the rumor suggest and the last known release was 18M, wouldn't you think MS would be shouting it from the rooftops? 5M increase in 3 months would be something to celebrate if true?
All nice and shiny but the old wisdom remains: revenue isn't profit! It's really fascinating to see how especially US companies focus so much in getting those revenue numbers out in the open. The higher the number, the better, revenue numbers are usually always higher than profit numbers and the general public with their limited mind capacity just sees the big numbers and says: WOW look at these numbers! They always forget that things do cost to make and deliver and that the slaves (= employees) also have to get paid something. Not to mention that they probably sell the Xbox Series X/S at a loss!
Essay Pro