When it comes to Xbox results, Microsoft is usually very stingy with the details. The EU Digital Services Law obliges the firm to release the language and give figures. And in Europe they are low.
If Nintendo and Sony share many figures on the popularity of the Switch and PlayStation consoles, with the number of players, game sales and subscriptions, Microsoft talks much less about Xbox.
Since 2014, Microsoft no longer communicates the sales figures for its Xbox consoles and does not give more or less details about the health of its video game activity. Even about the number of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, the brand communicates very rarely.
Fortunately, there is the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Europe that now requires the brand to communicate publicly.
Only 6 million Xbox gamers in the EU?
As we have already mentioned, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is a new regulation in the European Union that should encourage platform responsibility and better content moderation. Above the threshold of 45 million users per month in the EU, legalization imposes even more restrictions.
Therefore, brands must publicly communicate the number of users they reach in the member countries of the European Union. Microsoft has published an indicative table to this effect on its site.
We can read that on the video game side, Microsoft estimates that it has an average of 4 to 6 million users of its online store selling games depending on whether it is accessed from an Xbox console or the website. Keep in mind that Xbox is a platform where online game purchase is highly favored by gamers. Xbox Game Pass is also not available in all EU countries.
Microsoft doesn’t give details about how it counts users, but it’s safe to assume that simply visiting the store with an Xbox account signed in, without making a purchase, counts as one user for the month.
We conclude that these figures illustrate the difficulties of Microsoft and its Xbox brand in Europe. For comparison, it is estimated that Sony has managed to sell 45 million PS4 consoles in Europe and Nintendo Switch has surpassed 7 million copies in France alone.
And on PC?
Another interesting element, Microsoft makes the distinction between its application or video game store in Windows, while the two activities are well united in the Microsoft Store. It can be assumed that this is an effect of differences in treatment by Microsoft between its activities. In fact, the firm has largely released the limitations of its Microsoft Store for application developers, to shine better against the App Store or Google Play Store, without offering the same conditions for Xbox game developers.
According to Microsoft figures, the Windows Play Store has an average of just 3 million users per month in the EU, compared to 33 million for the broader app store.
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