Call of Duty helps Xbox Game Pass to quarterly revenue record

Microsoft has released its first quarter report for the 2025 fiscal year, shedding light on the company's financial performance for the three-month period ending September 30, 2024. Overall Xbox hardware revenue is down 29 percent (continuing the downward trend), but game revenue was overall up 43 percent, thanks in large part to its major Activision Blizzard acquisition and the robust library that the publisher brought to the table.

That 43 percent growth includes 43 points of net impact from the Activision deal, as outlined in Microsoft's earnings presentation. Xbox content and services revenue grew 61 percent (including 53 points of net impact from the acquisition). The Activision Blizzard merger is clearly showing a massive impact on the division, shoring up some of the slack from falling hardware revenue. It's shown impact in other ways, too: Microsoft has laid off over 2,500 game workers and shuttered multiple studios since the turn of the year.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted that, one year after closing the big deal, "we are focused on building a business positioned for long-term growth, driven by higher-margin content and services."

Gaming revenue grows at Xbox, despite the falling hardware numbers

Nadella noted Microsoft set "new records" for monthly active users in the quarter, and that Game Pass set a new Q1 record for "total revenue and average revenue per subscriber." Call of Duty Black Ops 6, which launched last week, was singled out as the "biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day."

Despite the praise, Microsoft avoided sharing exactly what those record numbers were for all of the above.

Interestingly, Nadella added that unit sales for the game were also up significantly on PlayStation and Steam: to the tune of 60 percent year-over-year.

"This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on," said Nadella. This is consistent with Nadella's recent remarks on Xbox's multiplatform prospects.