In the fiscal quarter ending June 2024, Microsoft reported over 500 million monthly active gaming users across all platforms and devices. This is up from 200 million reported users at the end of 2023. The user figures are strongly impacted by the closing of Microsoft's acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

First launched in 2002, the Xbox Network is an online multiplayer service associated with Microsoft’s Xbox line of consoles. As of December 2022, Microsoft's online gaming service had approximately 120 million monthly active users, up from just under 40 million at the beginning of 2016. The service was known as Xbox Live before rebranding into Xbox network in March 2023 and to differentiate it from the Xbox Live Gold subscription service offering.

Xbox Live perks Xbox network is available as a free service, but it also has a paid tier called Xbox Live Gold. Many of the key features that gamers look for in the service, such as online gaming and access to exclusive games, are restricted to the Gold service. The Gold service also includes a Games with Gold program, in which gamers are offered access to digital downloads of games every month. Xbox One gamers have access to two games every month, with the cumulative retail value of these games reaching a combined 712 U.S. dollars throughout 2022.

 King of the consoles? The Xbox Series S/X is the current generation of Xbox consoles and competes neck-to-neck with Sony's PlayStation 5 which were both released in November 2020, as well as the Nintendo Switch console which was launched in March 2017. When looking North American sales, the Xbox Series S/X has already surpassed the Nintendo Wii U and the Dreamcast but still is lagging behind the PlayStation 5. Additionally, the majority of Xbox gaming revenue is not derived from hardware sales but through gaming content and service sales.

In January 2025, first-person shooter (FPS) favorite Call of Duty was the second-most popular game on the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles worldwide, ranking second based on monthly active users. Battle royale game Fortnite ranked first.

First launched in June 2017 on the Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft's cross-platform gaming subscription service, which allows users to play online multiplayer, access a rotating library of games, and other services, depending on the subscription tier. Xbox Game Pass reported 34 million subscribers in February 2024. The overall reach of the Microsoft Xbox Network was an estimated 120 million monthly active users. A constantly evolving product With the multiplayer subscription service Xbox Live Gold already being a part of the online gaming experience on the Xbox One console, Microsoft introduced a separate on-demand subscription service for gaming content, known as Xbox Game Pass, in the second half of the console’s lifecycle. In April 2019, Microsoft also introduced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which bundles Game Pass with an Xbox Live Gold subscription. This higher-priced tier also includes EA Play, a subscription service for video games published by Electronic Arts. EA Play has been live in several iterations, known as Origin Access on PC and EA Access on consoles. In November 2020, EA Play was integrated into the XBox Game Pass Ultimate and instantly doubled its user reach. Expanding the content library via strategic acquisitions At launch, the Xbox One platform, and subsequently the Xbox Game Pass, have frequently been criticized for the lack of platform-exclusive releases. Compared to the PlayStation or Nintendo Switch, there were fewer major first- or third-party exclusives, and several flagship Microsoft exclusives also underperformed or were delayed or cancelled.To remedy this, Microsoft began to realign its first party studios first into unified Microsoft Studios (2017) and then rebranded this collection of gaming studios into Xbox Game Studios (2019). Since 2019, Microsoft has made several key acquisitions (Double Fine, InXile Entertainment, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Playground Games) before making a big splash with their 7.5 billion U.S. dollar purchase of holding company ZeniMax Media in March 2021. ZeniMax’s portfolio of gaming studios includes Bethesda Game Studios (maker of Fallout, The Elder Scolls, and the upcoming Starfield), id Software (developer of Doom, Quake, and the Rage series), Arkane Studios, MachineGames, and Tango Gameworks. It was Microsoft’s most high-profile gaming acquisition until the announcement of its intended purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for an eye-watering 69 billion U.S. dollars in January 2022. As of June 2023, the blockbuster deal is still up for regulatory approval due to concerns about industry consolidation and its impact on consumer choice.

First launched in November 2006, PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital entertainment service associated with Sony’s PlayStation series of consoles. It has since been expanded to run on smartphones, tablets, and HD televisions. As of June 2025, the network had approximately 123 million monthly active users, a decrease from the 129 million users in December 2024. PSN perks PSN has a dedicated store where gamers can buy the latest releases, as well as a subscription service, PlayStation Plus, which allows users to not only play online with their friends, but also gain access to exclusive content and early releases. PlayStation Plus had an estimated 47.4 million users in spring 2023, illustrating that gamers are willing to pay a little bit extra to connect with the wider gaming world. Moreover, those who are willing to pay for PlayStation Plus Essential are handsomely rewarded in the form of free games — subscribers were offered a cumulative total of 1,304 U.S. dollars' worth of free video games in 2022.   King of the consoles? Sony's PlayStation 5 was released in November 2020 and is the company's current flagship console. Sony’s previous console, the PlayStation 4, was released back in late-2013, but is still going strong many years later. The console has surpassed 100 million units sold worldwide, an impressive increase on the 10 million units sold within the first year. The best-selling game of all time on the PS4 is Marvel's Spider-Man at approximately 20 million PS4 game sales. With Microsoft’s Xbox One sales falling short of 50 million units, it appears that Sony is staking its claim as the king of the consoles.

In December 2023, Epic Games was the most popular video game publisher across Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles, accounting for 13.9 percent of monthly active users on the platforms. The resurgence of Fortnite has led to Epic Games overtaking the previous leader, Electronic Arts (EA), who made up 13.6 percent of console gaming MAU during the measured month.

In 2020, Fortnite was the leading console game title based on number of monthly active users (MAU) worldwide on Xbox and PlayStation. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was the Nintendo Switch title with the biggest monthly active audience during the measured period.

In March 2025, PUBG: Battlegrounds was the most popular game published by the South Korean video game company Krafton, with ************ monthly active users (MAU) across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. The real-life simulation game inZoi ranked second, with around *********** MAU, while games such as Subnautica and The Callisto Protocol were less popular.

Sports game developer EA launched EA Sports College Football 25 into early access on July 15, 2024, across Xbox and PlayStation 5 consoles, and saw immediate popularity. The game attracted almost 1.3 million daily active users (DAU) on its first playable day, a number which grew to 2.82 million DAU by the fifth day, the day of the official launch. Therefore, by the end of the first week after launch, the EA game had attracted almost three times as many players as Madden NFL 24, which generated 1.09 DAU after seven days.

With upcoming releases of racing video games such as Forza Horizon 5, different racing game subgenres across gaming platforms have attracted considerable numbers of monthly active users (MAU). In 2024, racing sim games had 8.5 million average MAU on PlayStation and 3 million average MAU on Xbox, making this the overall most popular racing subgenre. Arcade racing games were especially popular on Xbox, attracting 3.4 million MAU, while action racing games had 4.2 million MAU on PlayStation.

The global revenue change in the 'Game Consoles' segment of the consumer electronics market was forecast to continuously decrease between 2025 and 2030 with the exception of 2027 where the revenue would increase. According to this forecast, in 2030, the revenue change will have decreased for the third consecutive year to 2.6 percent.

The revenue in the 'Game Consoles' segment of the consumer electronics market in Europe was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 784.7 million U.S. dollars (+9.26 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 9.3 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the revenue of the 'Game Consoles' segment of the consumer electronics market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find further information concerning the volume in the consumer electronics market in Italy and the revenue in the 'consumer electronics' segment of the e-commerce market in the United States. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Destiny 2 is an online multiplayer first-person shooter game which was first released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September 2017. Whilst the game was initially available on Windows the following month, it only became available on the online gaming platform, Steam, some two years later in October 2019. In the first month of its release on Steam, the game peaked at 292,314 concurrent players worldwide. Destiny 2 reached a peak of 108,362 players gaming at the same time in July 2025.

The global average revenue per capita in the 'Game Consoles' segment of the consumer electronics market was forecast to continuously increase between 2025 and 2030 by in total 0.44 U.S. dollars (+9.78 percent). After the twelfth consecutive increasing year, the average revenue per capita is estimated to reach 4.97 U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2030. Notably, the average revenue per capita of the 'Game Consoles' segment of the consumer electronics market was continuously increasing over the past years.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

As of March 2023, Sony's PlayStation Plus video gaming subscription service had over 47.4 million subscribers 532431, 14.1 million of which were on the higher-priced Extra or Premium tiers. PlayStation Plus is a paid gaming subscription service that provides users with access to premium features at different pricing levels. PlayStation subscription services - change with the times Originally launched in 2010, PlayStation Plus has long since been a mainstay of the online gaming experience as it was a must-have to access online multiplayer gaming on PlayStation. Other features include exclusive discounts on the PlayStation Store, as well as free monthly games available for download. Up until mid-2022, players could also subscribe to a separate cloud gaming service, PlayStation Now, in order to access a library of PlayStation games that could either be streamed or downloaded to PC or PS consoles. In June 2022, Sony combined its PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now gaming services, and the revamped PlayStation Plus service now features a three-tier subscription model. The existing service became PlayStation Plus Essential, with higher-priced tiers, PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium, adding access to downloadable and streamable gaming titles, which were formerly available under PlayStation Now. These changes were not universally well received at launch, as the PS Plus subscriber count dipped to its lowest figure since September 2020 before recovering at the beginning of 2023.

Xbox Game Pass - the competition is bulking up Sony’s PlayStation Plus service competes directly with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, which currently has 25 million global subscribers. Additionally, Game Pass is also available for PC, and just in April 2023 expanded its user base to 40 new countries. With the Game Pass lacking in subscriber numbers, it makes up with its game catalogue, which Microsoft has been aggressively expanding in recent years. There are currently over 400 games available on Xbox Game Pass, which is a much smaller amount than the approximately 700 games on PS Plus at the highest tier. However, Microsoft has been acquiring gaming studios left and right to remedy this, and the company’s 69 billion U.S. dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard is a testament to this fact. However, platform exclusivity of multi-platform games is an increasing concern among gaming audiences worldwide, who have been closely following these industry developments.

First launched in 2010, PlayStation Plus is Sony’s subscription service which allows PlayStation users to play online multiplayer. As of March 2023, the service had over 47.4 million subscribers, a decrease from its peak of 48 million subscriptions in December 2021. In June 2022, Sony combined its PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now cloud gaming services and the revamped PlayStation Plus service now features a three-tier subscription model. The existing service became PlayStation Plus Essential, with higher priced tiers PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium adding access to downloadable and streamable gaming titles which were formerly available under PlayStation Now.

PlayStation Plus perks As well as enabling gamers to play with their friends online, PlayStation Plus comes with several other perks. PS Plus members are given early access to upcoming games and are given discounts on PlayStation Store items. One of the biggest perks is the gift of two PlayStation 4 and one PS5 game every month. These so-called Instant Game Collection games have ranged from blockbuster games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4) and A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS5), to smaller games such as a limousine driving game, Roundabout, and Knowledge is Power, a local multiplayer quiz game. In total, PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers were offered 1,304 U.S. dollars’ worth of free video games in 2022.

 PlayStation still going strong Announced in 2019, Sony's PlayStation 5 was released in November 2020. The PS5, along with Microsoft's Xbox Series S and Series X consoles, which were launched in the same month, are part of the ninth generation of video game consoles. Industry estimates that the PS5 will generate over 67 million unit sales by 2024. However, the rollout of the flagship console was marred by limited supply and scalpers taking advantage of the situation, driving up the price of the console for thousands of dollars in the secondary market.