2021 for Microsoft was a year to remember, especially in regards to Xbox. To reveal it is the latest financial report relating to the earnings of the last quarter of Microsoft, which reveals that 2021 was the best year for the Xbox brand. Not only that, the general profits generated by the Redmond giant also increased by 20% compared to 2020, demonstrating the growth of its business over the last year.
Microsoft: Xbox on the crest of the wave
To carry out the calculations was the well-known financial analyst Daniel Ahmad, who on Twitter showed how Microsoft has managed to obtain a revenue of $ 16.28 billion for 2021 Xbox related. Without too many words, it is hands down the best year ever for the gaming division of the Redmond giant, which among other things also shows a good balance between the sale of hardware and services.
The services in particular are configured as the real strength of the Xbox offer, as had already become clear in the past with the great focus that Microsoft is placing on the Game Pass. Just i services, united with the rich contents offered, in fact account for 77% of the company’s total proceeds. Just think of Halo Infinite, which recorded the best launch of the entire franchise.
Hardware revenue was $3.7 billion, up 63.3% YoY:
– Driven by continued demand for Series X|S
– Xbox Series S production increase helped fulfill some demand. Better than expected.
– 2021 was a full year of next gen hardware sales while 2020 only had the launch quarter for X|S pic.twitter.com/4RKS8OWSIx
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 25, 2022
Even from the hardware point of view, however, Microsoft has nothing to complain about Xbox, given that the next gen console manages to bring home respectable numbers, thanks to the increase in the production of Series S, now very easy to find. The digital console seemed to be the weak link of the new generation of Microsoft, but in truth it turned out to be its strong point.
According to the analyst’s estimates, in 2021 we are talking about about two million consoles sold between Series S and Series X and 25 million subscribers to Xbox Game Pass. In short, the future seems well-cleared now for Phil Spencer’s division and we can’t wait to find out what the future holds.
Microsoft’s year of record earnings
Even without necessarily considering Xbox, the 2021 Microsoft was however nothing short of noteworthy in terms of earnings. The Redmond giant in fact recorded revenue equal to 51.7 billion dollars on an annual basis, with an increase of 20%, as we mentioned at the beginning. The resulting operating income is $ 22.2 billion, which equates to an overall growth of 24%.
The data relating to the very recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard from Microsoft, which cost the company a whopping $ 70 billion.
According to Ahmad’s estimates, if the agreement had already been concluded, this would have generated revenues of 25 billion dollars, an element that returns the colossal dimension of this purchase.
It is clear that this record-breaking data is also a reflection of the time we spend daily on the PC, which is drastically increasing due to the pandemic. On this very topic the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella he explained that “we are witnessing a renaissance of PCs, with an increase in the time spent in front of the computer per user and an increase in the number of PCs per family”. It is no coincidence that Windows 10 and 11 are installed on one and a half billion devices around the world.