Microsoft Sees Growth in Gaming Revenue and Cross-Platform Publishing

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Microsoft Xbox hardware revenue saw a 25 percent decrease in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2025. However, the company is expressing optimism, pointing to its success as the top publisher on PlayStation during the last quarter

Latest financial report confirms the drop in Xbox console sales. Despite this, the overall annual gaming revenue increased by 9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 23.5 billion dollars. A big reason for this growth was the 16 percent rise in annual Xbox content and services revenue, largely thanks to the major merger with Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft highlighted that Xbox revenue is greatly affected by subscriptions and sales of games, both from their own studios and other publishers. The company stated that the growth of its gaming business depends on factors like the number of active users, game availability, exclusive content, the power and reliability of devices, and the ability to create new gaming experiences.

During a recent earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pointed out that Xbox is one of the company’s two consumer businesses with “massive end user reach.” He mentioned that Xbox has made significant progress on rival platforms by choosing to release major games from its own studios on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. “We are now the top publisher on both Xbox and PlayStation this quarter, with the successful launches of Forza Horizon 5 and Oblivion Remastered,” Nadella announced.

He also shared impressive numbers for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, noting that 50 million people have played it, resulting in over 2 billion hours of playtime worldwide. Meanwhile, Minecraft saw record-breaking monthly active usage and revenue in the last quarter, boosted by the release of A Minecraft Movie.

Nadella also confirmed that Xbox Game Pass annual revenue reached nearly $5 billion for the first time in the last fiscal year. He hinted that there’s much more to come from their gaming business, revealing that they have “nearly 40 games in development.”