Microsoft Talks Xbox Milestones Ahead of E3

With E3 just a month away, Microsoft is highlighting some interesting Xbox platform growth metrics. No, not console sales. You know that ain’t happening. But still interesting.

“Today, we’re witnessing a record-setting number of players, playing at record levels, and engaging in new ways,” Microsoft’s Mike Nichols notes. “It’s a great time to be a gamer and to be a part of Team Xbox.”

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Some of the milestones that Microsoft is touting include:

Xbox One sales. Xbox One consoles sales are up 15 percent over the same time period last year.

Xbox Live usage. This was sort of mentioned in Microsoft’s recent earnings announcement, but Xbox Live “players” are up 13 percent year-over-year. I assume this isn’t directly related to Xbox Live usage/Xbox Live Gold, but it’s unclear.

Looking For Group usage. So far, over 600,000 friendships have been made with Looking For Group.

Clubs usage. There are now over 1.2 million Clubs on Xbox Live.

Enhanced for Xbox One X. There are now over 200 games that have been specifically enhanced for Microsoft’s 4K game console.

Sea of Thieves success. Sea of Thieves is the fastest-selling new IP Microsoft Studios game of this console generation.

ID@Xbox program success. Gamers have enjoyed over 4 billion hours playing ID@Xbox program games.

Xbox One Backward Compatibility success. Games have spent over 1 billion hours playing Backward Compatible games on Xbox One.

Xbox Game Pass. No hard data here, but I do agree with Microsoft that Xbox Game Pass is “the ultimate gaming membership for fans.”

Mixer usage. Microsoft’s game streaming service exceeded more than 10 million active users in a month for the first time last year. But it’s doing even better each month to start 2018, Microsoft says.

 

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  • Rycott

    Premium Member
    02 May, 2018 - 9:21 pm

    <p>I wonder how much Sea of Thieves was bolstered by Xbox Games Pass.</p><p><br></p><p>Most of the people I know that were playing it have dropped off now due to lack of content. Including myself. They did lots of things right with the world and mechanics. They just forgot the rest of it.</p>

  • jamiet

    02 May, 2018 - 9:21 pm

    <p>Xbox as a brand is more valuable than Xbox as only 'a console'. At least that's how it will be in the long term</p>

  • Peter Hultqvist

    03 May, 2018 - 2:05 am

    <p class="ql-indent-1"><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sea of Thieves</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">&nbsp;is the fastest-selling new IP Microsoft Studios game of this console generation.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Isn't it the only new IP from Microsoft for this console generation?</p><p><br></p><p>So in other words: "best selling game on a Monday since last 7 days".</p>

    • DeenVR

      03 May, 2018 - 2:17 am

      <blockquote><a href="#269061"><em>In reply to Phuor:</em></a></blockquote><p>It isn't even. They counted all the Xbox game pass free 14 day trials that downloaded Sea of Thieves. Soon as those free trials were up everyone bailed on the game. If you look at actual retail sales for April it sank to the bottom of the Top20. It's an empty, early access sandbox with no content.</p><p><br></p><p>Xbox One's first party problem is the elephant in the room that they don't want to acknowledge, so instead it's redundant "old game from 2006 added to backward compat!" distractions and drivel.</p>

      • ecumenical

        03 May, 2018 - 5:51 am

        <blockquote><em>In reply to Phuor:</em></blockquote><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: transparent;">"Isn't it the only new IP from Microsoft for this console generation?"</span></p><p><br></p><p>Nope – you forgot State of Decay, Ori and the Blind Forest, Quantum Break, ReCore, ScreamRide, Super Lucky's Tale, and Dark Dreams Don't Die. Not a terribly impressive list, to be sure, but also not 0.</p><p><br></p><blockquote><em>In reply to DeenVR:</em></blockquote><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: transparent;">"They counted all the Xbox game pass free 14 day trials that downloaded Sea of Thieves." </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: transparent;">Do you actually know this, or are you just making things up? Microsoft is pretty good about using weird specifics to get around the truth without lying (see above re: "best-selling new IP this generation"). So if they were counting downloads, it seems really unlikely that they would say "fastest-selling" instead of "most downloaded" or "most day one players" etc.</span></p><p><br></p><p>And personally I appreciate the back compat stuff a lot. Never had an Xbox or an Xbox 360, so having access to things like KOTOR, Lost Odyssey, Halo Reach etc. is pretty nice. And it means I get 4 games/month from MS as opposed to the 2/month from Sony for PS4. </p><p><br></p>

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