Microsoft generated $2.9bn from Xbox Game Pass last year, regulatory docs suggest

Microsoft generated around $2.9 billion in revenue from Xbox Game Pass subscriptions on console in 2021, it’s been reported.

As spotted by Tweaktown, a lengthy report by Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard included a small table revealing the information.

According to the table, of which CADE says the source is Microsoft itself, the Xbox company saw an income of $2.9 billion worldwide from “game subscription services for consoles”, meaning Xbox Game Pass.

It’s worth noting that actual profit is not revealed in the CADE report, and the revenue figure does not include PC Game Pass.

As noted by Tweaktown, this means Xbox Game Pass made up roughly 18% of Microsoft’s total annual Xbox revenues ($16.28 billion), and nearly 30% of its games and services revenues ($12.581 billion) for the period.

The table also claims that Nintendo Switch Online saw revenues of $932 million last year, while EA Play reportedly took in $356 million.

No figure was given for Sony‘s game subscription services, be that PlayStation Now (which is now defunct) or the revamped PlayStation Plus (which wa presumably too new to have had figures submitted).

The information was given as part of CADE’s report explaining why it had approved Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard with “no restrictions”.

CADE also stated that in its judgement, should the Call of Duty series become exclusive to Xbox in the future, Sony should still have the means to remain competitive, like Nintendo does.

“With the acquisition of a publisher such as Activision Blizzard, and considering the (theoretical) risk of the company’s content becoming exclusive to Xbox, it is likely that the eventual conclusion of the transaction will give Microsoft a considerable competitive advantage in the console sector,” it said.

“Even so, CADE does not see that such an advantage represents a risk of closing this market for current competitors. As is already seen, Nintendo does not currently rely on any content from Activision Blizzard to compete in the market.

“In turn, Sony has several predicates – strength of the world’s leading brand for more than 20 years, extensive experience in the sector, largest user base, largest installed base of consoles, robust catalog of exclusive games, partnerships with multiple third-party publishers, brand loyal consumers, etc – which should contribute to maintaining the competitiveness of PlayStation in a possible post-transaction scenario, even in the face of the possible loss of access to Activision Blizzard content.”