Microsoft has revealed how much money Game Pass makes on consoles in a filing to the Brazilian regulator. The subscription service generated nearly $3 billion last year.
As reported by Tweaktown, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) released a document with some data on Xbox revenues. This happened days after the regulator approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
- According to the document, Xbox Game Pass reached $2.9 billion in revenue on consoles in 2021. The subscription service’s earnings on PC remain undisclosed.
- It is 18% of Microsoft’s annual gaming revenue of $16.28 billion and nearly 30% of the company’s games and services revenue of $12.58 billion (excluding hardware sales).
- TweakTown’s Derek Strickland also compared Game Pass revenue with PlayStation’s Network Services, which includes both PS Plus and PS Now revenues.
- In FY 2021, Sony made $3.64 billion off its Network Services division. It is up 1.8% and 17.3% from FY 2020 and FY 2019, respectively.
$2.9 billion is not nothing. In fact, it’s really good.
Here’s a look at PlayStation’s Network Services revenues which include PlayStation Plus and PS Now revenues.
These are fiscal years so it’s not calendar. pic.twitter.com/C3oS6c4kbM
— Derek Strickland (@DeekeTweak) October 9, 2022
- It is worth noting that CADE didn’t clarify how Game Pass’ revenue was calculated. Microsoft itself has never publicly revealed the data on its subscription service.
In January, soon after the announcement of the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal, Microsoft said Game Pass had reached over 25 million subscribers. However, it is unclear how this number has changed since then.
Xbox has plans to add Activision Blizzard titles to Game Pass in the future, which should help the company turn its subscription services into “one of the most compelling and diverse lineups of gaming content in the industry.” Some analysts even expect Game Pass to reach 100 million subscribers if games like Call of Duty were available there on day one.
However, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard still must be approved by the US and European regulators. The US Federal Trade Commission, which has serious concerns about the deal, should rule on it next month. Microsoft is also facing in-depth investigations in the UK and EU.