Microsoft's second fiscal quarter includes the months of October, November, and December, and during this time last year, the company released the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. Not only were these machines two highly anticipated next-generation consoles, but they were released during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had, and still has, individuals stuck indoors looking for something to do, like, say, play video games.
For these reasons, Microsoft states in its 2021 Q2 fiscal report that it saw a relatively large revenue increase. According to the report, everything Xbox-related saw an increase in sales. Specifically, Microsoft's gaming revenue went up 51%, which translates to 5 billion dollars. It's Content and Services, which include first-party and third-party games along with Xbox Game Pass Subs, went up by 40%, and its Xbox hardware sales went up 86% thanks to the Xbox Series consoles.
Altogether, Microsoft pulled in a whopping $43.1 billion in revenue for the period. That's a 17% increase, from its previous quarter. Out of that, the company claims to have turned a profit of $15.5 billion, which is a 33% increase. It apparently could have done better too. The only reason why profits aren't higher is that Microsoft suffered shortages in the Xbox Series consoles stocks — no doubt due to COVID-19 making the production of the consoles difficult.
To put into perspective how impressive Microsoft's profit earnings over the quarter are: the company made enough to pull off the Bethesda-Acquisition twice and still have change left over. When Microsoft purchased Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax, it did so for $7.5 billion, less than half the amount it made in its second quarter. Afterward, the company would still have at least a billion dollars left over. That may not be much to the company in the grand scheme of things, but it's still impressive nonetheless.
For the sake of clarity, the increase in Microsoft's earnings isn't surprising; it's interesting. An increase in Microsoft's profits should have been expected, considering, again, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S are next-generation consoles and therefore have a lot of excitement around them. The mentioned pandemic has also helped sales in the video game industry overall, not just Microsoft. That said, it's enthralling to know exactly how well Microsoft did. The fact that it made enough money to buy Bethesda twice is mind-blowing and should help it acquire more big-name studios in the future, something it's expressed interest in doing.
Xbox Series X and S are available now.