Brendan Sinclair North American Editor Thursday 19th July 2018 Share this article Share

Companies in this article Microsoft

Microsoft today reported earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter (ended June 30), and the results show the company's gaming business enjoyed a year of significant growth.

For the full fiscal year, Microsoft reported gaming revenues of $10.35 billion, up 14% year-over-year. For comparison, Nintendo posted revenues of ¥1.06 trillion ($9.7 billion) for its last fiscal year, while Sony's Game & Network Services segment reported full-year revenues of ¥1.94 trillion ($17.29 billion).

For the fourth quarter alone, Microsoft's gaming revenue came in at $2.29 billion, a 39% jump over the previous year's fourth quarter. However, Microsoft couldn't take all the credit. While Xbox-specific revenues were up 36%, the company attributed that gain primarily to the performance of third-party releases.

The other key metric Microsoft reports for its gaming business is Xbox Live active users. The fourth quarter saw 57 million active users on the service, which is up from the previous Q4's 53 million, but slightly off the 59 million it posted for Q2 and Q3 of this year.

The business segment which Microsoft's gaming efforts are part of, More Personal Computing, saw fourth quarter revenues up 17% to $10.8 billion.

The company as a whole did similarly well, with fourth quarter revenues up 17% to $30.1 billion, with net income up 10% to $8.9 billion. For the full year, Microsoft reported company-wide revenues up 14% to $110.36 billion, and net income down 35% to $16.57 billion.