Microsoft had already confirmed that Xbox Series X/S was selling at a better rate than past generations of Xbox, and estimates suggest that it exceeds 12 million consoles.
The Xbox division has had its best year in terms of revenue , as revealed by the company, which has achieved 16.28 billion dollars throughout 2021. Analyst Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners has shown a comparison in which we can see that last year’s data is 17.07% higher than what Xbox achieved in 2020.
Microsoft's Gaming division (Xbox) reported revenue of $16.28 billion for the 2021 calendar year:
– Best calendar year on record, beating previous high of 2020
– Total gaming revenue up 17.7% YoY
– Content & Services revenue up 8.8% YoY
– Hardware revenue up 63.3% YoY pic.twitter.com/84MkOsnMkG— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 25, 2022
Specifically, hardware revenues have risen 63.3% to 3.7 billion dollars. Niko Partners estimates that more than 12 million Xbox Series X | S have been sold so far -it was launched in November 2020-, although this official data is not known. “The increase in Xbox Series S production has helped meet some demand,” and sales of this model would be better than expected. Xbox Series X, like PlayStation 5, suffers more from supply shortages and all stock is sold out as soon as it goes on sale. Overall, the Xbox Series is selling at a faster rate than previous Xbox generations .
The content and services division grew 8.8% to 12.6 billion dollars mainly thanks to Xbox Game Pass -which exceeds 25 million subscribers- and first party game sales -Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 – although there was a decline in sales of third party games .
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
A very high demand for new consoles
“When you think about getting an Xbox or a new PlayStation on the market right now, they’re really hard to come by. And it’s not because the supply is smaller. In fact the supplies are as big as ever. It’s the demand that is outpacing supply ,” said Xbox’s Phil Spencer, denying that production of the new consoles is lower than what was seen years ago.