Xbox Game Pass revenue could've beaten Xbox console sales in Holiday 2024

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 helped Xbox hit a new all-time revenue high for Game Pass subscriptions, and it's possible this growth could've helped Game Pass make more than Xbox hardware during the Holiday 2024 period.

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Things are on the up and up for Xbox, at least when it comes leadership comments. The latest holiday 2024 earnings results show a $500 million+ decline in total Xbox platform earnings, but the downward pull was mostly due to hardware. And since hardware is sold at a loss, reductions in actual Xbox console shipments/sales can actually boost Xbox's total profits.

While we didn't refreshed Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers, we did get a vital snippet if info from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The subscription actually made record-breaking revenues throughout the Q2'FY25 / Holiday 2024 period, driven by Black Op 6's megaton launch on Xbox Game Pass.

"Game Pass set a new quarterly record for revenue and grew its peak PC subscriber base by over 30% as we focus on driving fully-paid subscribers across endpoints," Nadella said in the report.

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And while we don't know specifics on numbers, we can actually infer how much money Game Pass made from October - December 2024. Matching Nadella's recent comments up with what we've heard in the past, we can say that Xbox Game Pass made in excess of $1 billion in revenue throughout Holiday 2024.

Back in April 2023, during the Q3'FY23 earnings call, Nadella said this about game subscriptions:

"Now, on to gaming....Our revenue from subscriptions reached nearly $1 billion this quarter."

Another interesting tidbit: Microsoft could've made more from Xbox Game Pass than it did from hardware, at least when it comes to revenue. Our findings show that hardware was down to $1.01 billion throughout the Holiday 2024 period.

Here are previous Xbox Game Pass revenues, calculated by us based on comments from Phil Spencer.

Contrast this to the $2.9 billion that Xbox Game Pass reportedly made throughout calendar 2021, and we see that Bethesda and Activision Blizzard King have had a tremendous implied value boost effect on subscriber adoption rates.

Our other findings show that Game Pass made around $230 million in a single month.

Xbox Game Pass had 34 million subscribers as of February 2024. Microsoft has not updated this figure. Game Pass is expected to make a whopping $5.5 billion throughout 2025.

Microsoft's CEO has said that the games division will focus more on profitability and higher-margin businesses, which include subscriptions and digital multi-platform game sales. Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer has likewise affirmed that game exclusivity is essentially now extinct as Microsoft seeks more ways to sell its games and boost margins.