Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday that more than 10 million people have streamed games through Xbox Cloud Gaming. Cloud gaming, a feature that’s only available as part of the $14.99-a-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Package, suggests that in fact, many users are using the feature.
It’s also a rarely specific statistic in the cloud gaming space: Google doesn’t publish Stadia’s user numbers, and any number Nvidia shares for GeForce Now includes users who have used free trials without strings attached.
XGP has proven to be popular. Microsoft said in January that the service’s subscribers grew to 25 million, up from 18 million the year before. That said, it’s unclear how Microsoft defines streaming games from Xbox Cloud Gaming, so it’s not known what that statistic might represent, how many current XGP Ultimate subscribers are included in the cloud game count, or how much time the company is requiring to consider it as part of the statistic.
It’s also worth noting that technically, you can sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just a dollar and then cancel. It’s unclear how many people do this and use cloud gaming services, which also count towards the data shared by Microsoft.
Microsoft has invested heavily in Xbox cloud gaming, first on Android, then iOS and PC, then xbox consoles, which means you can now stream a huge arsenal of Xbox games across a variety of devices. As of October, the service is fully powered by custom Xbox Series X hardware, which improves frame rates and load times to make it easier to use.
But the company also has strong hardware sales, with Xbox just posting its best March sales in 11 years, and the next Xbox becoming more accessible. Microsoft said Tuesday that Xbox hardware revenue grew 14 percent. However, Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, warned that the shutdown in China could affect future hardware sales, including a “limited supply of gaming consoles.”