Xbox Live grows to 59 million active users

By Asher Madan
published

Xbox Live monthly active users grew significantly last quarter, possibly due to a boost from Xbox One X and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Today, Microsoft released its second quarter earnings and blew away expectations. The company announced $28.9 billion in revenue and $7.5 billion in non-GAAP net income. However, the gaming division's results were some of the most surprising, with revenue growing 8 percent to $3.9 billion.

Xbox Live usage also grew, with Xbox Live's monthly active users increasing by 7 percent to 59 million. This is a significant jump and could come down to a number of factors, including the launch of the Xbox One X and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The game already has over 4 million players on Xbox One, and that number is expected to rise in the coming months.

It's safe to categorize PUBG as an absolute sensation at this point, and the game's success continues even on Xbox One. The game has been breaking records ever since it came out and even managed to pass a million players in the first 48 hours on the console. We also know that PUBG sold over 20 million copies on PC.

The Xbox One X launched on November 7, 2017, and is the most powerful console ever made. The device features 6 teraflops of processing power and 12 GB of GDDR5 memory, and a faster hard drive. All of that combines to make a formidable machine that can tackle 4K gaming. That appears to have been enough to give gaming revenues a boost due to increased hardware sales, according to Microsoft.

Keep an eye on WindowsCentral.com/Gaming for all the latest in Xbox and Windows 10 gaming, accessories, news, and reviews!

Asher Madan
Asher Madan

Asher Madan handles gaming news for Windows Central. Before joining Windows Central in 2017, Asher worked for a number of different gaming outlets. He has a background in medical science and is passionate about all forms of entertainment, cooking, and antiquing.

21 Comments
  • And with rumors MS is looking to aquire EA, bluehole, or Valve they are starting to learn how to think long term, and not what's good for "right now"
  • I'd say they've done that since MS pour their resources into implementng UWP, BC, FC & XPA.
    Free-unlimited-cross-platform-cloud-sync and GamePass + Win10S, ARM, IOT, Xboxes, AR, MR are also part of the plan.
  • I think it's all about game streaming. All people now look at the rumors about EA and Valve but they forget that MS just recently bought PlayFab. And for a reason.
    MS's cloud business is strong. There are only three big players on this market right now. MS, Amazon and Alphabet. And MS is the only one with a strong gaming business. And they have a good relationship with EA.
  • I can see Bluehole, but I highly doubt we will see MS buy EA or Valve. Valve especially.
  • Wow!
  • Happy to be one of the millions.
  • Nice, my only gripe with the Xbox One X is the inability to swap out the HDD easily. But that can be handled with an external hdd enclosure.
  • External drives are kind of annoying to handle (I have two currently one big one and one small SSD) when moving the console, and they also can be unsightly with wires strewn about. I can see the benefit of swapping the internal HDD.
  • External drives are nice if you want to move to a new Xbox.
  • Yeah, that made going to the 1X easy. I just wish that DLC transferred more easily. Some games (The Witcher 3) acts like it can't see the installed file until you redownload it.
  • Oh come on enough with the thinking long term.... Out of the GAFAM, MS and Amazon are the two only one really thinking long term... Being a big consumer brand has nothing to do with thinking long term.... Apple for exemple is a paper giant with absolutely zero solid foundation compared to MS.... Everything relies on brand equity and mass market trends... Nothing long term about that...
  • Yes. What happens to apple if the iPhone sales going down?
  • And now imagine the Xbox sales would be at least nearly as good as the PS4. I don't know why but there are just more online subscriptions per consoles than on the PlayStation. Sony could have more than double the amount of subscriptions than MS but they have not. Maybe it's Sonys focus on single player games. Or maybe it's the about the countries. Xbox is very strong in the US. A wealthy country with good internet connection.
  • It amazed me too. That whit half. The user base XBOX is trumping PlayStation in subscribers. And 3.9 billion in game revenue per quarter is nothing to shabby. It's like 4 times the amount of revenue the Surface division makes and nobody is questioning that divisions validity ;) So maybe investors should stop ***** in and start getting that gaming and XBOX is a essential part of Microsofts ecosystem, it's what keeps Windows relevant for hundreds of millions of consumers. The PC game ecosystem is still untouchable for both Apples OSX and Google Chrome/Android. It's what differentiates Windows from other consumer PC offerings. Both casual as hardcore!
  • @Michael "It amazed me too. That whit half. The user base XBOX is trumping PlayStation in subscribers." What amazes me is that people still think these are number of subscribers... LOL
  • @Apfel "there are just more online subscriptions per consoles than on the PlayStation." Do you have proof of that?  In case you didn't know the 59m is not the number of gold subscribers. It's just number of people who connected at least once on XB, Win10 or mobile devices... If we consider active users per hardware it's actually the other way round...
  • Do you have proof of the number of Gold memberships?
  • Proof of what? The 59m is not gold membership?? "The number of people in the last 30 days that have engaged with an Xbox Live game on either Windows or Xbox 360 or Xbox One"
    https://www.vg247.com/2016/03/01/spencer-monthly-active-users-determines...
  • Just because people haven't booted a game in a month, doesn't mean they aren't a gold subscriber. Sometimes it takes me over a month to boot my box if i have a busy month at home/work. This article also is almost 2 years old and states a 48 million number in 2015. How is this relevant to today's numbers? I was just stating that we actually don't know the numbers of gold subscribers, only MS knows this.
  • See I'm not the one claiming to know the number of gold subscribers. MS knows it but won't communicate it. But when these 2 guys make claims like "The user base XBOX is trumping PlayStation in subscribers." or "there are just more online subscriptions per consoles than on the PlayStation." It makes me wonder if they even have a clue...
  • "the  59 million monthly active Xbox Live members in the previous fiscal quarter, Nadella boasted record usage of Xbox Live services, record viewers on Mixer, and record Minecraft users."
    Oh What a surprise!! Record number of xbox live members just as there is a record number of minecraft users.  https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/817434/Minecraft-update-N...