"It's literally tens of millions of hours." Xbox CEO Phil Spencer celebrates Xbox Cloud Gaming's "dramatic growth," now with per-device usage charts.

Xbox Cloud Gaming on Backbone controller
Mobile is actually surprisingly low. (Image credit: Future)

How's Xbox Cloud Gaming doing? Pretty well, it seems.

A few years back now, Microsoft introduced Xbox Cloud Gaming to the world, after years of research and rumors. As Microsoft Azure's cloud infrastructure expanded and matured, so too did Microsoft's opportunity with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Shared by @Welfare_JBP on Twitter/X, Xbox Cloud Gaming's total usage distribution sees Windows PC, Smart TVs, and Xbox One take the lion's share, with mobile devices surprisingly trailing. (Image credit: Microsoft via @Welfare_JBP)

In the GDC talk, Microsoft explained a variety of new ways Xbox developers can leverage cloud gaming, including cloud-aware user interfacing for scaling on smaller screens, unlocking the 16:9 aspect ratio to adapt more screen sizes, and much more.

Indeed, most of the issues around Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Play Anywhere, and more, simply represent development hours and polish. Spencer acknowledged some of the issues fans are running into "discovering" the Xbox ecosystem on PC, noting "we have a lot of work to do there."

Only yesterday I wrote an article complaining about how the Xbox app on PC handles library curation, which is inexplicably showing Windows Phone games recently. A source confirmed to me that, that, was in fact a bug — part of on-going work to unify Xbox's store listings between console and PC.

"Obviously with people finding Xbox on PC, we have a lot of work to do there. We've teased and talked about handhelds, and I'm very excited because we both travel some, and sometimes you can't always take your console or whole gaming desktop with me."

But it is really about building the experience around the person — and that's the part that gets me most excited, not a single device at the center. It's not one game. It is the player at the center, making sure all of your games are available, all of your save games all of your entitlements are available wherever you go."

As someone who is actively using Xbox Play Anywhere, I share Spencer's excitement for the future of the platform — but execution is absolutely key.

Jez Corden
Executive Editor

Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter (X) and tune in to the XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.