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Minecraft had close-to 132m monthly active users in the last quarter

Minecraft had close-to 132m monthly active users in the last quarter

Mojang's block-themed blockbuster Minecraft had almost 132m monthly active users (MAUs) for during the three months ending June 30th, 2020.

That's according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (pictured), who told investors – as transcribed by Seeking Alpha – that this was a new record for the smash-hit title. That's up from the 126m users that Mojang said played Minecraft each month in May of this year. To date, the title has sold over 200m copies.

Nadella also reported that Xbox Live had almost 100m users. Revenue from the Big M's games business rose by $1.3bn year-on-year – or 64 per cent – the Xbox content and services division saw a 65 per cent increase in revenue.

This was due to – what else? – the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has had people staying at home and looking for a way to pass the time. Xbox hardware revenue rose 49 per cent year-on-year, which is somewhat unusual given how late in the console cycle we are.

Cost of revenue – or manufacturing and R&D – rose 19 per cent year-on-year, costing Microsoft $1.9bn. This was driven by Microsoft's commercial cloud and gaming divisions, likely reflecting the investment the company is making in its xCloud streaming service and building Xbox Series X consoles and first-party titles.


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.