Microsoft Reports Strongest Xbox Q3 to Date, Outlook Remains Positive
Microsoft's gaming division had its best Q3 ever, driven by growth in Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty and Minecraft. Xbox ended the quarter as the top publisher by pre-orders and pre-installs on both Xbox and the PlayStation Store.
In the third quarter of FY2025 (January to March 2025), Microsoft's gaming division generated revenues of $5.721 billion (~€5.048 billion), an increase of 5 percent over the previous year. It was the biggest Q3 ever for Xbox. Hardware revenue was down 6%, while Content and Services revenue was up 8%, driven by growth in Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty and Minecraft (influenced by the Minecraft movie). During the period, Microsoft released the RPG Avowed.
In the third quarter of FY2025 (January to March 2025), Microsoft's gaming division generated revenues of $5.721 billion (~€5.048 billion), an increase of 5 percent over the previous year. It was the biggest Q3 ever for Xbox. Hardware revenue was down 6%, while Content and Services revenue was up 8%, driven by growth in Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty and Minecraft (influenced by the Minecraft movie). During the period, Microsoft released the RPG Avowed.
Satya Nadella (CEO): "We continue to transform the business and focus on margin expansion, as we bring our games to over 500 million monthly active users across devices. We ended the quarter as the top publisher by pre-orders and pre-installs on both Xbox and the PlayStation Store. PC Game Pass revenue increased over 45% year-over-year. (...) Cloud gaming set a new record, surpassing 150 million hours played for the first time this quarter. (...) Finally, it is fantastic to see the success of Minecraft Movie which is the top grossing film of the year. In addition to monetizing our IP in new ways, we have seen a 75 percent-plus increase in weekly active users of the game year-over-year since the release."
Amy Hood (CFO): "And in Gaming, we expect revenue growth to be in the mid-single digits. We expect Xbox content and services revenue growth to be in the high single digits driven by first-party content."
Microsoft as a whole generated $70 billion (~€62 billion) in revenue in Q3 (up 13%), with nearly $25 billion (~€22 billion) coming from the Server Products and Cloud Services division and $21.9 billion (~€19 billion) from Microsoft 365 Commercial Products and Cloud Services. Gaming is the company's third-largest revenue stream.
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Satya Nadella (CEO): "We continue to transform the business and focus on margin expansion, as we bring our games to over 500 million monthly active users across devices. We ended the quarter as the top publisher by pre-orders and pre-installs on both Xbox and the PlayStation Store. PC Game Pass revenue increased over 45% year-over-year. (...) Cloud gaming set a new record, surpassing 150 million hours played for the first time this quarter. (...) Finally, it is fantastic to see the success of Minecraft Movie which is the top grossing film of the year. In addition to monetizing our IP in new ways, we have seen a 75 percent-plus increase in weekly active users of the game year-over-year since the release."
Amy Hood (CFO): "And in Gaming, we expect revenue growth to be in the mid-single digits. We expect Xbox content and services revenue growth to be in the high single digits driven by first-party content."
Microsoft as a whole generated $70 billion (~€62 billion) in revenue in Q3 (up 13%), with nearly $25 billion (~€22 billion) coming from the Server Products and Cloud Services division and $21.9 billion (~€19 billion) from Microsoft 365 Commercial Products and Cloud Services. Gaming is the company's third-largest revenue stream.
Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.
