Worse Xbox Sales Don't Bother Microsoft; Company Reports Gains
Microsoft has released its latest financial results. As it turns out, sales of Xbox consoles were lower than a year ago. However, the company can still consider the period successful.
June 30 marked the end of the fourth quarter of Microsoft's fiscal 2023. In connection with this, the technology giant revealed its financial results for the period.
- The company reported an 8% increase in revenue - to $56.2 billion.
- Net income rose by a massive 20 percent to $20.1 billion.
- The number of Xbox Series X/S consoles sold in the fourth quarter of 2023 fiscal year dropped by as much as 13% compared to the same period of 2022..
- Interestingly, despite this, revenues of the entire gaming division recorded an increase - admittedly, only by 1%. This, in turn, translated into revenue of $36 billion.
- Microsoft recorded the second best result in the fourth quarter and in the entire fiscal year in terms of revenue of the Xbox division. This was driven by a 5% increase in revenue from "content and services" (primarily Game Pass).
- And while the Redmond giant did not provide an actual number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reported that the the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 was a record quarter for Xbox in terms of the number of active users.
"We set new records in the fourth quarter in terms of monthly active users, as well as monthly active devices. We also observed record engagement of gamers in Game Pass usage in the fourth quarter - they spent 22% more time on gaming year-on-year," Nadella announced.
What are the predictions for the future? Microsoft's chief financial officer, Amy Hood, presented projected results for the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Xbox content and services should once again see single-digit percentage growth, as should overall game revenues. Hood, however, gave no indication of projected Xbox console sales. It's possible that these will also see growth due to the September release of the long-awaited Starfield.
