Xbox FY25 Q1 gaming revenue is up 43% year-over-year, again thanks to Activision Blizzard — and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 just set a franchise record
Microsoft gaming revenue is up with strong results mostly due to Activision Blizzard.
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What you need to know
It’s that time of the quarter where we get more financial results.
Microsoftshareddetails on its performance for FY25 Q1 on Wednesday, providing details on how the company’s various divisions did during the quarter ending Sep. 30, 2024. For FY25 Q1, gaming revenue was up 43% year-over-year. Like inFY24 Q4,FY24 Q3, andFY24 Q2, this massive leap on paper is due to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King,which finalized just over a year agoon Oct. 13, 2023.
Xbox content and services revenue saw a leap of 61% year-over-year, with most (but not all) of that growth coming thanks to Activision Blizzard King. This quarter saw the launch of multiple major third-party titles, including EA Sports College Football 25 andWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Xbox hardware revenue was down 29% year-over-year.Xbox Series Xsales are finally overtaking sales of theXbox Series Sin the U.S, per theSeptember 2024 Circana report.Speaking on an earnings call accompanying the financial results, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared thatCall of Duty: Black Ops 6was the largest Call of Duty launch ever in day one players. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 also set a new record for the number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers added in a single day, a title previously held by Bethesda Game Studios’Starfield, which launched back in September 2023. Meanwhile, unit sales of the game were up 60% on PlayStation and Steam.“Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players, as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day. Unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60 percent year-over-year,” Nadella said.
The impact of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch results will not be accounted for in Microsoft’s earnings until next quarter.
Microsoft as a whole saw $65.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, which is up 16% year-over-year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Treyarch and Raven Software’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 brings 16 new multiplayer maps, the return of round-based zombies, and an action-packed campaign. You can buy it outright, or play through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Then, grab a controller or console wrap to go with it!
Buy for Xbox:$69.99 at Best Buy|$69.99 at AmazonBuy for PlayStation:$69.99 at Best Buy|$69.99 at AmazonBuy for PC:$69.99 atSteam|$69.99 at Microsoft Store
How did acquiring Activision Blizzard King change Xbox revenue?
Over the last year, we’ve seen several Microsoft earnings with massive year-over-year increases in gaming revenue.
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This is because ever since the acquisition closed, Microsoft has now accounting Activision Blizzard King as first-party, rather than the prior third-party relationship. This gave Microsoft control of massive franchises likeCall of Duty, Candy Crush,Diablo, andWorld of Warcraft.
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Microsoft has been slowly but steadily integrating the Activision Blizzard King portfolio into the greater Xbox ecosystem, launching recently Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 day one inXbox Game Pass Ultimateand Xbox Cloud alongside the expected Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows PC versions of the game.Looking ahead, Microsoft is continuing to build on a massive roadmap of first-party content across Activision Blizzard King, Bethesda Softworks, and Xbox Game Studios. In 2025, Microsoft is looking to launch Xbox titles like id Software’sDOOM: The Dark Ages, Playground Games’Fable, and Compulsion Games’South of Midnight.
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Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.
