Microsoft is a force in the gaming industry, that’s for sure. Most of this value has come from profitable acquisition operations that the company has carried out over the years, such as acquiring ZeniMax Media, and recently Activision Blizzard King. In a recent financial report, it was confirmed that the technology giant now owns 20 video game titles that have each exceeded a billion dollars in revenue.
The “2024 Annual Report” recently published by the company highlights the impressive size of Microsoft’s gaming portfolio.
It is worth noting that many of the titles Microsoft refers to are decades old, and have accumulated revenue over many years. For example, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, Gears of War, Diablo, and Halo. Microsoft has only a few new titles under this umbrella, and even the gem of the group – Call of Duty – was acquired after being in the market for over 20 years.
We offer amazing games to more people on more devices. Through our acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, which closed in October 2023, we added hundreds of millions of players to our ecosystem.
We now have 20 titles or franchises that have generated over a billion dollars in revenue throughout their lifetime – ranging from Candy Crush, Diablo, Halo, to Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, and Gears of War. And with Xbox cloud games, we continue to innovate to provide players with more ways to experience the games they love – wherever, whenever, and however they want.
The financial update raised the bar for the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, praising the paid subscription service that includes “over 400 games from first and third-party games on Xbox and PC.” However, it’s not everything and the end all, be all, as attention has also been drawn to the cloud gaming platform for the ecosystem, even if the competition is fierce.
Xbox and the cloud gaming services we offer face competition from various online gaming systems and game streaming services, including those operated by Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Tencent. We also compete with other entertainment service providers such as video streaming platforms.
This year, Microsoft’s gaming revenue has increased by 39% – $6 billion – thanks to growth in Xbox content and services, as revealed. Microsoft has a lot of faith in the recent acquisition of Activision to boost growth in the future: “The acquisition will accelerate growth in our mobile, PC, Xbox, and cloud gaming businesses.”
