Microsoft was the No.1 games publisher in the world last month
Nearly $0.5bn was spent on Xbox games across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox in December
$465 million was spent on Microsoft games over December, making the company the world’s biggest publisher across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
That’s according to data firm Ampere, and includes sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which was one of the biggest games over the Holiday period. It also includes the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which launched in December.
But it was Call of Duty that delivered the majority of the success. Call of Duty HQ, which includes Black Ops 6, attracted 38 million monthly users in November 2024, Ampere says, which set the game up strongly for December.
Microsoft has been putting increased focus on its multi-format strategy, and 64% of consumer spending on Microsoft titles in December was on PlayStation formats (driven by Call of Duty).
Ampere says that Microsoft was comfortably ahead of second-placed Electronic Arts, which generated $366 million over the same period. EA’s performance was driven by EA Sports FC 25, which delivered big numbers, albeit smaller than they were last year.
Ampere data also revealed that 30 million hours were spent playing Fortnite on Christmas Day, which meant the average Fortnite gamer spent 2.3 hours on the game on that day. 20 million hours were also spent on Call of Duty games during December 25th.
The two big talking points of the month were Marvel Rivals, which brought in 29 million monthly active users over December, while Path of Exile 2 generated $148 million, the firm estimates. And both of these successes made December a big month for Chinese publishers, which are growing their influence in the global games industry.
There were four key Chinese published games that drove the numbers last month, including Marvel Rivals (Netease), Path of Exile 2 (Tencent), Infinity Nikki (Papergames), and Delta Force (Tencent). As a result of those titles, Chinese games publishers Tencent (No.5) and Netease (No.9) entered Ampere’s monthly rankings for the first time.
“The growing global scale of major Chinese publishers adds a new dynamic to the console and PC gaming markets, and inevitably means added competition in what is already a hyper-competitive industry,” says Ampere research director Piers Harding-Rolls.
According to recent NPD data, PS5 console sales are tracking ahead of PS4 in the US, while Xbox Series console sales lag behind Xbox One, highlighting the widening gap between the machines.
Last week, Microsoft’s gaming CEO Phil Spencer did the media rounds, discussing where Xbox console hardware fits within its new, more open approach to multiplatform game development.
