ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

Microsoft says it's seen record numbers on Xbox Live, Game Pass and Mixer

Microsoft says it's seen record numbers on Xbox Live, Game Pass and Mixer

Software and games firm Microsoft has said that it has seen "record numbers" of people using its online services.

In a notification on its support site, the Big M said that it had seen all-time highs for Xbox Live, its Game Pass subscription service as well as streaming platform Mixer. As a result, the firm has had to make some changes, including removing customised gamer pics, as well as pics and backgrounds for clubs.

At the time of writing, Hi-Rez's Smite and The Division 2 from Ubisoft are both down on Xbox Live, likely due to heightened demand.

As reported by VGC, Microsoft has also seen a huge increase in its cloud services. The Big M reports that it has seen a 775 per cent rise in demand for its cloud services in regions where social distancing has been enforced.

This is all due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has seen people around the world encouraged or ordered to stay indoors and self-isolate in order to slow the spread of the virus.

Valve has seen consecutive highs in the number of concurrent users on its Steam platform as well as people actually playing games for the last three weekends.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.