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Nicholas Lovell
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Microsoft hits the $1 billion barrier for Xbox Live

By on August 1, 2008

In the latest issue of MCV, Don Mattrick and John Shappert talk about hitting the $1 billion revenue barrier for Xbox Live.

The stats were originally announced at E3, but there was some interesting colour:

  • There are over 12 million members, who between them have spend $1 billion, that’s an Average Revenue per User (ARPU) of $83
  • Approximately 1/3 of all paid-for downloads were from the video marketplace, not games


It’s difficult to get further breakdowns, and it seems likely that much of this total was spent as subscriptions to Gold rather than for downloadable content.

But it’s still a hell of an achievement, and a fantastic additional revenue stream for a format holder.

And the statistics about movie downloads show that Microsoft’s ambition of turning the 360 into a home entertainment hub may have some legs.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com