Xbox is seeing growth in Japan, with cross-platform player engagement across its gaming ecosystem rising significantly throughout 2025. With Japan being one of the world's largest video game markets, this newly reported momentum offers an encouraging sign for Microsoft, standing in contrast to recent challenges that Xbox has faced.
While they started out similarly, Xbox Series X/S sales began lagging behind the Xbox One in recent years. For the FY25 Q4 period ending June 2025, Microsoft reported a 22% year-over-year decline in hardware sales. Meanwhile, Xbox Game Pass growth has been slowing for years, so much so that Microsoft has stopped providing regular updates on subscriber numbers. Amid these challenges and an industry-wide trend of longer, costlier development cycles, Microsoft has recently pivoted to third-party publishing, bringing some of its biggest franchises to rival platforms in an effort to boost gaming revenue.
Contrasting these challenges, Xbox has seen some uplifting performance in Japan. That's according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who shared as much in a recent interview with Famitsu. Total playtime has grown about 20% "in the past year," the executive said, clarifying that this number includes Xbox consoles, PC games...
