Microsoft's game revenue up by $550 million as Xbox readies for Series X debut

While the Xbox One generation is winding down, the Xbox brand is holding strong and is even listed as a driving force behind year-over-year growth in Microsoft's “more personal computing” segment as a whole.

Revenue for Microsoft’s game business is up 22 percent year-over-year, an increase of $550 million when compared to Q1 FY2020.

This is, according to Microsoft, largely thanks to the strength of Xbox’s content and services dealings which includes Xbox Game Pass subscriptions as well as game sales.

Unfortunately, Microsoft stopped sharing exact subscriber counts for services like Game Pass a while back, but the growth this close to the end of a generation bodes well for Xbox’s plan to push the service as an enticing buy for players regardless of when they plan on making the jump to the next-generation Xbox Series X or Series S.

Xbox content and services revenue alone is up $646 million year-over-year, or 30 percent, thanks to third-party games, Game Pass, and first-party games and helped to offset a 27 percent year-over-year decrease in Xbox hardware revenue due to the rapidly approaching end of the Xbox One generation.

For the entire more personal computing segment, Microsoft says revenue is up 6 percent year-over-year, growth driven by both its video game dealings and its Surface brand.