With Xbox Live MAUs up 82%, Phil Spencer calls Japan Xbox's 'fastest growing region'

Xbox has traditionally had a harder time breaking into the Japanese video game market, but Xbox head Phil Spencer is confident the Series X will make headway in the region.

Speaking during Xbox’s TGS 2020 showcase, Spencer addressed Xbox’s desire to better cater to Japanese players and noted that some of its efforts are already paying off.

Xbox Game Pass launched on both Xbox consoles and PC in Japan this year, and Spencer notes that they’ve since “seen more players on Xbox devices, games, and services than at any time in our history in the market” since doing so. 

Comparing this summer to the summer of the previous year, he highlights that Japan’s Xbox Live monthly active users have grown 82 percent, though unfortunately no exact figures are provided to flesh out the data behind that percentage increase.

Xbox is also looking to bring cloud gaming to Japan in the first half of 2021, likely through a Japanese Project xCloud launch though the specific service isn’t named in the video. 

“Japan is our fastest growing region worldwide,” says Spencer. “We learn from the past. This year we’re scaling our global vision with the goal to launch our products in Japan at the same time as the rest of the world, including our new console, which will launch day and date with our biggest global markets.”