Microsoft

How many subscribers does Xbox Cloud Gaming have? — 2024 statistics

Data-driven achievements of gaming on the cloud-powered Xbox platform.

Fact-checked
Release Date
September 15, 2020
Type
Cloud gaming
Developer
Microsoft
Users
25M


Xbox Cloud Gaming is shaking things up, making big waves by letting folks play great games without needing a pricey setup. But how well is it really doing? A key number here is the subscribers. So, how many subscribers does Xbox Cloud Gaming have? We’re diving into Xbox Cloud Gaming statistics to uncover the secret sauce of its popularity and get the real scoop on its growth. Stay tuned for some cool facts and figures that highlight why gamers are jumping on this bandwagon. If you’re interested in a more in-depth analysis of the gaming industry as a whole, we’ve talked about how big the video game industry is on multiple occasions, so feel free to check that out!

Xbox Cloud Gaming key stats

Since Xbox Cloud Gaming is a service and can’t really be divided into different sections, we’re going to contain all of the stats for the service in this one section, so everything is nice and condensed. We’ll go over user percentages, total users, revenue, and much more just so we can understand what makes this service what it is and what has given it longevity in the very competitive gaming industry.

Xbox Cloud Gaming has over 25 million subscribers.

(Source: Statista)

  • The service had 10 million subscribers in April 2020.
  • The service had 15 million subscribers in September 2020.
  • The service had 18 million subscribers in January 2021.
  • The service had 25 million subscribers in January 2022.

In the first line of stats, we can see some fairly steady growth for Xbox Cloud Gaming since it was first released in 2019. Steady growth implies an acclimation process where users are getting used to a new service, and a new concept all the same, and we can see here that xCloud managed to climb the leaderboards of the most popular cloud gaming services to establish itself as a top competitor.

Xbox Cloud Gaming generated less than $50 million in 2021.

(Source: Game World Observer)

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming is set to become the largest cloud gaming service by 2026.
  • The service should be generating upwards of $450 million at that time.
  • In 2021, PS Now was the best cloud gaming service by revenue.
  • It is also speculated that the cloud gaming industry will grow in value from $400 million to $1.05 billion, which is a 300% increase.

What we said about an acclimation process is exactly this. In 2021, xCloud didn’t manage to fetch astronomical revenue as everyone had expected, instead only generating $50 million in revenue for the year. This is not that much considering the grand scope of the gaming industry in general, but it is bound to increase as time goes on, especially if the assumptions made by analysts turn out to be true.

Xbox Cloud Gaming was the only relevant cloud gaming service around in 2019.

(Source: Statista)

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming had 740,000 subscribers in 2019.
  • In Q2 2020, Xbox Cloud gaming had 2 million subscribers, 91% more than Google Stadia Pro.
  • In Q4 2020, Xbox Cloud Gaming had 4.4 million subscribers, 87% more than Google Stadia Pro, Facebook Gaming, and Amazon Luna combined.
  • In Q2 2021, Xbox Cloud Gaming had 7.5 million subscribers, 68% more than Google Stadia Pro, Facebook Gaming, and Amazon Luna combined.
  • In Q4 2021, Xbox Cloud Gaming had 13.2 million subscribers, 55% more than Google Stadia, Facebook Gaming, and Amazon Luna combined.

The steady growth of Xbox Cloud Gaming is apparent when you look at these numbers and compare them to some of its main competitors for each time frame, and it is quite apparent that there is no contest there. xCloud has been miles ahead of other cloud gaming services, simply because it offers a streamlined experience that is hard to beat.

To sum up

Okay, so that would be all we have to say about Xbox Cloud Gaming, one of the biggest cloud platforms available today. As you can see, the stats surrounding it are a bit sparse, but that is because this is a developing industry that takes time to note extreme changes and new things of note, so we’ll be sure to update this with everything new that comes out surrounding Xbox Cloud Gaming and cloud gaming in general. Until then, we sincerely hope that you have enjoyed what we’ve presented here and that all of your questions have been answered!

Sources

  • “Number of subscribers of Xbox Game Pass worldwide as of January 2022”. Statista, 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276183/xbox-game-pass-subscriber-count-global/
  • “Subscriber count of leading cloud gaming services worldwide as of 4th quarter 2021”. Statista, 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1315761/cloud-gaming-service-subscriber-count/
  • “xCloud generated less than $50 million for Microsoft in 2021, but estimated to become largest cloud gaming service in 2026”. Game World Observer, 2023, https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/05/04/xcloud-50-million-cloud-gaming-revenue-cma-report