First-Party Xbox Games Now Have Over 150 Million Monthly Users

As per Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty, Xbox first-party titles have accumulated over 150 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) on all platforms. In just the last five years, the company has released ten games that have grown to amass over 10 million players. Hence, when you add users already playing games like Minecraft from its first-party studios, the Xbox brand has become quite popular across many different platforms.

Matt Booty, the guy responsible for overseeing all of the first-party Microsoft developers, expanded on this topic at Microsoft’s “What’s Next For Gaming” panel. He said that there are large active communities around Xbox-owned titled like Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, and Forza. In addition, the company’s other studios like Bethesda and Zenimax also add to this number besides the original first-party titles, as per Booty.

We have already got such big communities around our service games, games like Minecraft, games like Elder Scrolls, Flight Simulator, Forza… games that continue to build communities. Over the last five years, we have shipped ten games that have over ten million players each. When you add that up across Bethesda, Zenimax, Bethesda Game Studios… we have over 150 million monthly players. 150 million MAU across first-party games.”

Do keep in mind, that this Monthly Active User count accounts for all of the users playing games from first-party Microsoft studios across many different consoles and PC. It isn’t the number of players on just Xbox consoles, but anyone playing a franchise owned by the brand on a PlayStation, a Switch, or a PC. The Xbox Game Studio further explained this stance saying this is how the company measures success:

That’s how we measure success. How many people are playing our games, how many people are we able to bring into the fold of our games and communities.”

Therefore, the number of people playing their first-party titles seemingly matters much more to Xbox than exclusivity. For sure, this MAU figure is inflated because of titles like Minecraft, which Microsoft owns but didn’t originally develop. But considering how the company does own the studios behind immensely popular franchises like Elder Scrolls, it is technically correct.

Furthermore, Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s attention towards other platforms like PC is a big reason for the terrific MAU count. Spencer uncovered yesterday that Microsoft is expecting to make $1 billion from PC just this year. He also said that the company is doing much better than its “peak” Xbox 360 days, with revenue being twice as much compared to that era.

According to the Xbox head, the company also has more players than ever and his goal is to bring new players and creators to the platforms. Considering how half of Series S buyers were entirely new to the gaming brand, he is succeeding in this task. Things are certainly looking up for Xbox and with Starfield’s anticipated release in September, the sky is the limit.

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