Microsoft announced financial details for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 (the quarter ended March 31, 2025) on Wednesday, announcing that the company's gaming business revenue increased by 5% year-on-year in the quarter.
Specifically, Xbox content and services revenue grew 8% year-on-year, which the company attributed to the growth of the Call of Duty and Minecraft brands, as well as the growth of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.Hardware revenue fell 6% year-on-year.
Overall, Microsoft's revenue this quarter reached US$70.1 billion, an increase of 11% year-on-year.Net profit was US$25.8 billion, an increase of 18% year-on-year.
In an earnings call held at the same time as financial results were announced, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pointed out that Xbox cloud gaming lasted more than 150 million hours for the first time this quarter.Nadella also said revenue for the PC Xbox Game Pass increased by 45% year-on-year.
According to Nadella, Microsoft was the number one publisher in pre-order and pre-installation of games this quarter on Xbox and PlayStation platforms.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was launched last quarter, a game that continues to sell well and is almost certain to generate a lot of revenue through microtransactions.
As for "Minecraft", the series has been attracting much attention due to the hot discussion surrounding the "Minecraft" movie, which was released in theaters on April 4, 2025.Nadella noted that the number of weekly active users of Minecraft has increased by 75% since the release of the movie.
This season, an important first-party Xbox game, called "Off" developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a fantasy role-playing game set in the world of Eola, which is also the background world of the studio's "Pillar of Eternity" series.
The next quarter should be very interesting for Xbox as the company launches a series of games.In April alone, "South of Midnight" developed by Compulsion Games and "The Elder Scrolls 4: Annihilation Remake" by Bethesda was launched.
Stoic Studios Towerborne is now available on Xbox consoles with the Xbox Games preview, while Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 5 and MachineGames’s India’s Ark’s Ancient Circle are available on the PlayStation 5 platform.Looking ahead, May will usher in "Doom: Dark Ages" developed by id Software.
