Microsoft released its financial results for the third quarter of 2021 yesterday. The American company has sales of $ 41.7 billion and net income of $ 15.5 billion. So it’s a historic quarter that has just ended, especially due to the growth of services and the cloud. On the Xbox side, the results are also positive and showing strong growth, especially thanks to the Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox’s final fiscal quarter in numbers
Xbox will therefore continue to grow in this third fiscal quarter of 2021is In January and March 31, 2021, Microsoft’s gaming division achieved a result 50% higher than the previous year. Better, This is the best fiscal quarter for Xbox in the past six years, with $ 3.53 billion in revenue.
Content and services revenue grew 34% to $ 2.9 billion. An increase of $ 739 million over the previous year, thanks largely to the very good health of the Xbox Game Pass. A Game Pass, for which Microsoft has not yet announced the number of subscribers, suggests that an announcement on the subject will be made shortly.
On the hardware sales side, the Xbox Series X | S also good. With a logical growth of 232% compared to the same quarter of the previous year This section now accounts for just under 20% of Xbox sales. A statistic that anchors even more that consoles are now among other things a piece of hardware and that the focus is now on Xbox Game Pass and its subscribers!
The elements of growth
As mentioned above, the results from the hardware branch are hardly surprising. Introducing the Xbox Series X | S has grown sales, of course, and given an aging Xbox One in 2020, the comparison makes little sense. It’s a shame Microsoft doesn’t detail the sales volumes or more specific elements of the revenue generated by the consoles here.
In terms of games and services, the result is much more impressive. With 34% growth, Microsoft has something to be excited about and satisfied with the latest operations. That surge is obviously due to Xbox Game Pass, but not exclusively. The acquisition of ZeniMax Media is as much a factor in this growth as the first-party games, which have outperformed. Start with Minecraft.
Xbox content and services revenue, which now includes ZeniMax, rose 34% and 32% on a currency-neutral basis, with top titles, particularly Minecraft, performing better than expected.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
And the best-selling game in Microsoft history makes people smile. Compared to the same quarter of 2020, the period January to March 2021 has 30% more monthly active users. So there are 140 million monthly active players that have now Minecraft. By the way, the head of Microsoft announces that the content creators have earned more than $ 350 million in income thanks to their creations (mods, add-ons, etc.). A model that is also followed to a lesser extent by the extraordinary Microsoft Flight Simulator That also has a community of dedicated content creators.
What outlook for Xbox?
If these numbers are extremely flattering, then the advancement of gaming at Microsoft should continue for the remainder of the year. X.box forecasts growth of between 5% and 9% for its business area in the next quarter., thanks in turn to income from games and services.
However, this line should be less dynamic than the 34% for this period, as an increase between 5 and 9% is expected here too. However, this does not mean a slowdown for the company, but rather testifies to the excellent results that have been achieved over the past year.
With Game Pass we are redefining the way games are distributed, played and displayed. Last week we added browser-based cloud gaming and expanded our reach to PCs and phones. Content is the service’s engine of growth. After completing the ZeniMax Media acquisition earlier this quarter, we made 20 of the world’s most famous and popular games available through Game Pass. And there will be more to come.
Satya Nadella
The demand for hardware is still extremely high. However, due to manufacturing difficulties, Microsoft predicts that supply will continue to be limited for the next quarter. This is no surprise and, according to several analysts, it should also be the case by the end of 2021.
Xbox events for the past fiscal quarter
To re-contextualize the elements read above, we offer you a rundown of the highlights of Xbox activity over the past quarter.
- Start of the extension The lords of the west to the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
- Xbox Series X controller released | S Pulse Red
- Start of the DLC Flames of the Nether to the Minecraft dungeons sur Xbox, PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch
- Acquisition of ZeniMax Media
- Introducing the new Xbox wireless headset
- Integration of EA Play into the Xbox Game Pass PC
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