Ampere: users spent $465M on Microsoft games in December, making it the biggest publisher, ahead of EA's $366M; Call of Duty HQ had 38M MAUs in November 2024
NEARLY $0.5BN WAS SPENT ON XBOX GAMES ACROSS STEAM, PLAYSTATION AND XBOX IN DECEMBER — $465 million was spent on Microsoft games …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft’s gaming strategy had already shifted toward content and services, from the earlier rise in Xbox software and services revenue to its acquisition-led expansion, including the Activision acquisition context. This spending snapshot shows the commercial weight of that catalog across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox rather than within Xbox hardware alone.
The result also fits Ampere’s earlier framing of console spending moving toward in-game items and subscriptions, which rewards publishers with large, continuously engaged game ecosystems. Call of Duty HQ’s 38 million November MAUs illustrates the scale of audience behind Microsoft’s December result.
First-order effects
- Microsoft ranked first among publishers by December player spending at $465 million, ahead of EA’s $366 million.
- Call of Duty HQ’s 38 million monthly active users gives Microsoft a large active audience through which to sustain spending across its game catalog.
Second-order effects
- EA and other major publishers face a higher benchmark for recurring player spend, increasing the importance of retaining engagement around their own franchises and service offerings.
- Microsoft’s leading spend across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox strengthens the value of broad distribution for a publisher whose revenue opportunity is not limited to console hardware sales.
Third-order effects
- If cross-platform spending remains central, publisher scale and durable live-service audiences may matter more than console exclusivity in determining gaming revenue leadership.
- The industry could further separate into platform owners that also operate large multiplatform publishing businesses and smaller publishers competing for attention and recurring spend.
The trend: Gaming is becoming more publisher- and engagement-led, with recurring spending across multiple storefronts reducing the importance of any single hardware platform.