Xbox focusing on same target as Roblox, Fortnite, and other major live games

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma shares what's next for Xbox, and the plan makes a lot of sense.

5

Today, Microsoft published a memo outlining the future of Xbox. Management has already reduced the price of Game Pass, nixed the confusing This is an Xbox marketing campaign and the Microsoft Gaming brand name, and promises a return to form...with a modern twist.

While Sharma did promise to "reevaluate" exclusivity, prompting fanfare from gamers, the most interesting part of the memo is one that reveals Microsoft's hand as a platform-holder and -operator.

"Our new north star will be daily active players," Sharma said in the memo. "The model that got us here won't be the one that takes us forward."

5

Microsoft gained hundreds of millions of monthly active users (MAUs) following its purchase of Activision Blizzard King.

Monthly active users and daily active users--referred to as MAUs and DAUs, respectively--are some of the most important metrics that platform holders can track. These numbers inform Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony of the health of their ecosystems, as more users means more spending.

The Big 3's users are funneled across a number of different pathways, including bustling storefronts, live service titles, social interactions, MTX spending, and apps like Netflix and YouTube.

For reference, Call of Duty has 70 million daily active users as of July 2023. Roblox, one of the most popular games of all time, had 151 million daily active users at the end of 2025.

A daily active player would be someone who plays or engages with games in some way, whether that be free to play, premium games, or via subscription. These users are more vital because they are actually playing the interactive experiences.

5

As we said during the FTC v Microsoft trial in 2023, the Xbox games ecosystem was set to essentially buy hundreds of millions of monthly active players by virtue of ABK's strong numbers. And indeed Sharma reiterates this point in the memo:

"Today, Xbox reaches over 500 million players around the world, with some of the most important franchises in entertainment."

Sharma also highlighted the need for Xbox to expand past console markets, which could be facilitated via the rumored ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming subscription tier:

"The industry is becoming global and competitive. More than half of the market's revenue, players, and growth are happening outside of our core markets."

5

So...what does this tell us?

Sharma will continue running Xbox as it has been insofar as live services, ecosystem, and infrastructure targets. Xbox still is, and will remain, an online services powerhouse that owns the veritable Rome of gaming that consists of a ring of heavy-earning, billion-dollar games-as-a-service ecosystems that span multiple platforms.

Each of Xbox's biggest games--Minecraft, Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Sea of Thieves, Fallout 76, and the Elder Scrolls Online--all depend on a high-velocity flow of content production and dissemination. These are the types of games where Microsoft earns the most profit--the titles are durable, digital, and monetizable for the long haul, creating multiple serialized content spending opportunities that are served throughout the year.

Subscription and live games are still important to Microsoft, but it has become a lot less rigid in pricing--at least temporarily--and this seems to be a good sign for things to come. But one thing that's reinforced with today's memo is that Xbox is not going backwards--it's moving forward with all of its billion-dollar assets in tow.