XBOXThin moat

Microsoft (MSFT) — moat facet

The largest purchase in Microsoft's history made the gaming line bigger without making it grow, and the console is now the part being abandoned.

XBOX is the line on which Microsoft spent most and earns least. Revenue was $21.8 billion in fiscal 2026, 6.6% of the company1, and it fell $1.7 billion, or 7%2. It is one of only two lines that shrank, and it shrank in every quarter of the year: 2.0% in September, 9.5% in December, 6.6% in March and 9.9% in June3.

XBOX revenue by quarter ($B)5.6Q1'256.6Q25.7Q35.5Q45.5Q1'266.0Q25.3Q35.0Q4Microsoft 10-Qs; Q4 = fiscal year (10-K) less nine months
Every quarter of fiscal 2026 was below its year-earlier match, and June was the smallest of the eight.

The line has two parts. XBOX hardware is the consoles; XBOX content and services is first- and third-party games and in-game content, XBOX Game Pass and other subscriptions, XBOX Cloud Gaming, advertising and other cloud services4. Microsoft says the revenue is mainly affected by subscriptions and sales of first- and third-party content, and by advertising5.

The history is long and mostly flat until Microsoft started buying. Gaming revenue was $9.1 billion in fiscal 2017 and $11.4 billion in fiscal 20196. It jumped to $15.4 billion in fiscal 2021, a year the next filing described as benefiting "from Xbox Series X|S launches and stay-at-home scenarios", and reached $16.2 billion in fiscal 20227. Microsoft bought ZeniMax for $8.1 billion8, and on 13 October 2023 completed the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion9, adding $51,235 million of goodwill to the More Personal Computing segment10.

The deal shows plainly in the series. Gaming fell 5% in fiscal 2023, to $15.5 billion, on lower console and first-party sales11. It then rose 39% in fiscal 2024, with content and services up 50% on "44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition"12, and 9% in fiscal 2025, with content and services up 16%13. Fiscal 2026 reversed: content and services fell 5% "on a prior year comparable that benefited from strong first-party content performance", and hardware fell 29%14. From fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2026 the line compounded at about 10.3% a year15, and it is $6.3 billion larger than in fiscal 2023, the last year before the deal16.

Put against the price, that is a thin result. Microsoft paid $75.4 billion for a business that, with everything else in the line, took revenue up by $6.3 billion in three years. Revenue is not profit, and Activision's own games sell on other companies' consoles too, so the comparison flatters the case against the deal. It is still the plainest number available, because Microsoft does not report the line's profit.

Hardware is falling fastest. Console revenue fell 13% in fiscal 202417 and 25% in fiscal 202518, then fell 29% in September19, 32% in December20 and 33% in March21. The company's own description of the business speaks of reaching gamers across PC, mobile and cloud and of new devices from third-party manufacturers22, which reads as a company that no longer needs to sell the box.

The quarters trace the same slide in dollars. XBOX brought in $6.6 billion in the December 2024 quarter, the second holiday season after the deal, and $6.0 billion in December 2025; the June 2026 quarter was $5.0 billion23, with content and services down 10%24. The line fell from 7.3% of Microsoft's revenue in fiscal 2023 to 6.6% in fiscal 202625, even after the largest purchase in the company's history was added to it.

What XBOX earns is folded into More Personal Computing, which earned 26.6% of revenue in fiscal 202626, the lowest of the three segments. The segment's operating expenses rose 6% partly because of "impairment and other related expenses in our XBOX business"27. A company rarely writes down part of a business it expects to grow into its purchase price.

The 10-K names the competition as other online gaming ecosystems and game streaming services, and other console platforms28. The business description itself no longer centres the console: it speaks of how people play "on PC, console, mobile, and cloud"29. A strategy that treats the console as one screen among four is consistent with hardware revenue falling a third a year while content holds up better, which is the pattern the numbers show.

The line's future is argued better on other pages than here: the moat pages do not rest on it, and neither does the root essay. What its numbers say is that the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history made the gaming business bigger without making it grow. Content and services growth is the figure that will settle it; it went from plus 16% in fiscal 2025 to minus 5% in fiscal 20263031. A return to growth in fiscal 2027 without a blockbuster in the comparison would say the catalogue works as a subscription business; another fall would say the price bought a publisher, not a platform.

Moat trajectory: Narrowing

Revenue fell 7% in fiscal 2026 and in every quarter of it, content and services turned from +16% to -5%, hardware fell by close to a third, and the segment took impairment charges in the XBOX business.

The number that tests this moat
Moat Explorer calc
XBOX revenue, June 2026 quarter
$4,983M, -9.9% year on year

XBOX fell in every quarter of fiscal 2026, with content and services down 10% in June. A return to growth in content and services without a blockbuster in the comparison would say the catalogue works as a subscription.

How it's calculated: Fourth-quarter revenue = FY2026 revenue in the Form 10-K less the nine-month figure in the Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q; the year-earlier quarter is computed the same way from the FY2025 figures.
Source: Microsoft Form 10-K FY2026 and Form 10-Q Q3 FY2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedRevenue was $21.8 billion in fiscal 2026, 6.6% of the company, and it fell $1.7 billion, or 7%.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Note: revenue by significant product and service offering, FY2024-FY2026 (Server products and cloud services $129,425M / $98,435M / $79,828M; Microsoft 365 Commercial $101,997M / $87,767M / $76,969M; XBOX $21,790M / $23,455M / $21,503M; LinkedIn $19,817M / $17,812M / $16,372M; Windows and Devices $17,084M / $17,314M / $17,026M; Search advertising $15,176M / $13,878M / $12,306M; Microsoft 365 Consumer $9,175M / $7,404M / $6,648M; Dynamics $9,006M / $7,827M / $6,831M; Enterprise and partner services $8,260M / $7,760M / $7,594M; Other $109M / $72M / $45M; total $331,839M); Microsoft Cloud revenue $214.4B, $168.9B and $137.7B, drawn from four of the lines; additions to property and equipment $115,948M — FY2024-FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedRevenue was $21.8 billion in fiscal 2026, 6.6% of the company, and it fell $1.7 billion, or 7%.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 7 MD&A: segment results (Productivity and Business Processes revenue $139,996M, cost of revenue $25,017M, operating income $83,879M; Intelligent Cloud $137,791M, $57,876M, $56,972M; More Personal Computing $54,052M, $23,481M, $14,386M) and the drivers of each line: Server products and cloud services +$31.0B or 31% (Azure +41%, server products +1%); Microsoft 365 Commercial +$14.2B or 16% (cloud +17% on seats +6%, products +13%); Microsoft 365 Consumer +$1.8B or 24% (cloud +28% on subscribers +7%); LinkedIn +$2.0B or 11%; Dynamics +$1.2B or 15% (Dynamics 365 +18%); Enterprise and partner services +$500M or 6%; Windows and Devices -$230M or 1% (Windows OEM +5%); XBOX -$1.7B or 7% (content and services -5%, hardware -29%); Search advertising +$1.3B or 9% (ex-TAC +12%); the Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriber metric removed — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  3. Moat Explorer calcIt is one of only two lines that shrank, and it shrank in every quarter of the year: 2.0% in September, 9.5% in December, 6.6% in March and 9.9% in June.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  4. ReportedXBOX hardware is the consoles; XBOX content and services is first- and third-party games and in-game content, XBOX Game Pass and other subscriptions, XBOX Cloud Gaming, advertising and other cloud services.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 1 Business: what each segment and line comprises, what drives each line's revenue (Azure consumption, per-user Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, Windows OEM licensing factors, XBOX content and subscriptions, LinkedIn's four products), the fiscal 2026 renaming of Gaming to XBOX and of Search and news advertising to Search advertising, and each line's competition — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedMicrosoft says the revenue is mainly affected by subscriptions and sales of first- and third-party content, and by advertising.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 1 Business: what each segment and line comprises, what drives each line's revenue (Azure consumption, per-user Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, Windows OEM licensing factors, XBOX content and subscriptions, LinkedIn's four products), the fiscal 2026 renaming of Gaming to XBOX and of Search and news advertising to Search advertising, and each line's competition — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedGaming revenue was $9.1 billion in fiscal 2017 and $11.4 billion in fiscal 2019.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2019 — revenue by offering FY2017-FY2019 (Server products and cloud services $21,649M / $26,129M / $32,622M; Office products and cloud services $25,573M / $28,316M / $31,769M; Windows $18,593M / $19,518M / $20,395M; Gaming $9,051M / $10,353M / $11,386M; Search advertising $6,219M / $7,012M / $7,628M; LinkedIn $2,271M / $5,259M / $6,754M; Enterprise Services $5,542M / $5,846M / $6,124M); LinkedIn acquired 8 December 2016 for $27.0B; GitHub acquired 25 October 2018 for $7.5B — FY2017-FY2019 · publ. August 1, 2019 · source ↗
  7. ReportedIt jumped to $15.4 billion in fiscal 2021, a year the next filing described as benefiting "from Xbox Series X|S launches and stay-at-home scenarios", and reached $16.2 billion in fiscal 2022.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2022 — revenue by offering FY2020-FY2022 (Server products and cloud services $41,379M / $52,589M / $67,321M; Office products and cloud services $44,862M in FY2022; Windows $24,761M; Gaming $11,575M / $15,370M / $16,230M; LinkedIn $8,077M / $10,289M / $13,816M; Search and news advertising $8,524M / $9,267M / $11,591M; Enterprise Services $6,409M / $6,943M / $7,407M); FY2022 drivers (Azure +45%, LinkedIn +34%, Office Consumer +11% with subscribers 59.7 million, Dynamics +25% on Dynamics 365 +39%, Windows OEM +11%, search +25% and ex-TAC +27%, Surface +3%); Nuance acquired 4 March 2022 for $18.8B; ZeniMax $8.1B; Xandr acquired 6 June 2022; LinkedIn over 850 million members — FY2020-FY2022 · publ. July 28, 2022 · source ↗
  8. ReportedMicrosoft bought ZeniMax for $8.1 billion, and on 13 October 2023 completed the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion, adding $51,235 million of goodwill to the More Personal Computing segment.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2022 — revenue by offering FY2020-FY2022 (Server products and cloud services $41,379M / $52,589M / $67,321M; Office products and cloud services $44,862M in FY2022; Windows $24,761M; Gaming $11,575M / $15,370M / $16,230M; LinkedIn $8,077M / $10,289M / $13,816M; Search and news advertising $8,524M / $9,267M / $11,591M; Enterprise Services $6,409M / $6,943M / $7,407M); FY2022 drivers (Azure +45%, LinkedIn +34%, Office Consumer +11% with subscribers 59.7 million, Dynamics +25% on Dynamics 365 +39%, Windows OEM +11%, search +25% and ex-TAC +27%, Surface +3%); Nuance acquired 4 March 2022 for $18.8B; ZeniMax $8.1B; Xandr acquired 6 June 2022; LinkedIn over 850 million members — FY2020-FY2022 · publ. July 28, 2022 · source ↗
  9. ReportedMicrosoft bought ZeniMax for $8.1 billion, and on 13 October 2023 completed the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion, adding $51,235 million of goodwill to the More Personal Computing segment.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2024 — revenue by offering FY2022-FY2024 on the pre-recast basis (Server products and cloud services $79,970M in FY2023; Office products and cloud services $54,875M in FY2024; Dynamics $4,687M in FY2022 and $5,437M in FY2023); FY2024 drivers (Azure +30%, seats +7%, Office 365 Commercial +16%, Office Commercial products -16%, Office Consumer +4% with subscribers 82.5 million, LinkedIn +9% across all four lines of business, Dynamics +19%, Windows OEM +7%, Devices -15%, Gaming +39% with 44 points of net impact from Activision Blizzard, Xbox hardware -13%, search ex-TAC +12%, Enterprise and partner services -4%); Activision Blizzard acquired 13 October 2023 for $75.4B — FY2022-FY2024 · publ. July 30, 2024 · source ↗
  10. ReportedMicrosoft bought ZeniMax for $8.1 billion, and on 13 October 2023 completed the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion, adding $51,235 million of goodwill to the More Personal Computing segment.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2025 — revenue by product and service offering on the recast basis, FY2023-FY2025 (Server products and cloud services $65,007M in FY2023; Windows and Devices $17,147M; Dynamics $5,796M; Enterprise and partner services $7,900M); the recast 'bringing the commercial components of Microsoft 365 together'; segment results FY2024-FY2025 (Intelligent Cloud revenue $87,464M and $106,265M, cost of revenue $29,611M and $40,171M, operating income $37,813M and $44,589M); FY2025 drivers (Azure +34%, server products -3%, Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud +15% on seats +6%, Office 2024, Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers 89.0 million after the January 2025 price increase, Dynamics 365 +19%, Gaming +9% with Xbox content and services +16% and hardware -25%, search ex-TAC +20%); More Personal Computing goodwill acquired $51,235M — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. July 30, 2025 · source ↗
  11. ReportedGaming fell 5% in fiscal 2023, to $15.5 billion, on lower console and first-party sales.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2023 — FY2023 drivers (Azure +29%, server products -1%, Office 365 Commercial +13% on seats +11%, Office Commercial products -21%, Office Consumer +2% with subscribers 67.0 million, LinkedIn +10% on Talent Solutions and over 950 million members, Dynamics +16% on Dynamics 365 +24%, Windows OEM -25% and Devices -24% on elevated channel inventory, Gaming -5%, search +5% and ex-TAC +11% helped by Xandr, Enterprise Services +4% with Industry Solutions formerly Microsoft Consulting Services) — FY2023 · publ. July 27, 2023 · source ↗
  12. ReportedIt then rose 39% in fiscal 2024, with content and services up 50% on "44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition", and 9% in fiscal 2025, with content and services up 16%.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2024 — revenue by offering FY2022-FY2024 on the pre-recast basis (Server products and cloud services $79,970M in FY2023; Office products and cloud services $54,875M in FY2024; Dynamics $4,687M in FY2022 and $5,437M in FY2023); FY2024 drivers (Azure +30%, seats +7%, Office 365 Commercial +16%, Office Commercial products -16%, Office Consumer +4% with subscribers 82.5 million, LinkedIn +9% across all four lines of business, Dynamics +19%, Windows OEM +7%, Devices -15%, Gaming +39% with 44 points of net impact from Activision Blizzard, Xbox hardware -13%, search ex-TAC +12%, Enterprise and partner services -4%); Activision Blizzard acquired 13 October 2023 for $75.4B — FY2022-FY2024 · publ. July 30, 2024 · source ↗
  13. ReportedIt then rose 39% in fiscal 2024, with content and services up 50% on "44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition", and 9% in fiscal 2025, with content and services up 16%.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2025 — revenue by product and service offering on the recast basis, FY2023-FY2025 (Server products and cloud services $65,007M in FY2023; Windows and Devices $17,147M; Dynamics $5,796M; Enterprise and partner services $7,900M); the recast 'bringing the commercial components of Microsoft 365 together'; segment results FY2024-FY2025 (Intelligent Cloud revenue $87,464M and $106,265M, cost of revenue $29,611M and $40,171M, operating income $37,813M and $44,589M); FY2025 drivers (Azure +34%, server products -3%, Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud +15% on seats +6%, Office 2024, Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers 89.0 million after the January 2025 price increase, Dynamics 365 +19%, Gaming +9% with Xbox content and services +16% and hardware -25%, search ex-TAC +20%); More Personal Computing goodwill acquired $51,235M — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. July 30, 2025 · source ↗
  14. ReportedFiscal 2026 reversed: content and services fell 5% "on a prior year comparable that benefited from strong first-party content performance", and hardware fell 29%.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 7 MD&A: segment results (Productivity and Business Processes revenue $139,996M, cost of revenue $25,017M, operating income $83,879M; Intelligent Cloud $137,791M, $57,876M, $56,972M; More Personal Computing $54,052M, $23,481M, $14,386M) and the drivers of each line: Server products and cloud services +$31.0B or 31% (Azure +41%, server products +1%); Microsoft 365 Commercial +$14.2B or 16% (cloud +17% on seats +6%, products +13%); Microsoft 365 Consumer +$1.8B or 24% (cloud +28% on subscribers +7%); LinkedIn +$2.0B or 11%; Dynamics +$1.2B or 15% (Dynamics 365 +18%); Enterprise and partner services +$500M or 6%; Windows and Devices -$230M or 1% (Windows OEM +5%); XBOX -$1.7B or 7% (content and services -5%, hardware -29%); Search advertising +$1.3B or 9% (ex-TAC +12%); the Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriber metric removed — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  15. Moat Explorer calcFrom fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2026 the line compounded at about 10.3% a year, and it is $6.3 billion larger than in fiscal 2023, the last year before the deal.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  16. Moat Explorer calcFrom fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2026 the line compounded at about 10.3% a year, and it is $6.3 billion larger than in fiscal 2023, the last year before the deal.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  17. ReportedConsole revenue fell 13% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025, then fell 29% in September, 32% in December and 33% in March.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2024 — revenue by offering FY2022-FY2024 on the pre-recast basis (Server products and cloud services $79,970M in FY2023; Office products and cloud services $54,875M in FY2024; Dynamics $4,687M in FY2022 and $5,437M in FY2023); FY2024 drivers (Azure +30%, seats +7%, Office 365 Commercial +16%, Office Commercial products -16%, Office Consumer +4% with subscribers 82.5 million, LinkedIn +9% across all four lines of business, Dynamics +19%, Windows OEM +7%, Devices -15%, Gaming +39% with 44 points of net impact from Activision Blizzard, Xbox hardware -13%, search ex-TAC +12%, Enterprise and partner services -4%); Activision Blizzard acquired 13 October 2023 for $75.4B — FY2022-FY2024 · publ. July 30, 2024 · source ↗
  18. ReportedConsole revenue fell 13% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025, then fell 29% in September, 32% in December and 33% in March.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2025 — revenue by product and service offering on the recast basis, FY2023-FY2025 (Server products and cloud services $65,007M in FY2023; Windows and Devices $17,147M; Dynamics $5,796M; Enterprise and partner services $7,900M); the recast 'bringing the commercial components of Microsoft 365 together'; segment results FY2024-FY2025 (Intelligent Cloud revenue $87,464M and $106,265M, cost of revenue $29,611M and $40,171M, operating income $37,813M and $44,589M); FY2025 drivers (Azure +34%, server products -3%, Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud +15% on seats +6%, Office 2024, Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers 89.0 million after the January 2025 price increase, Dynamics 365 +19%, Gaming +9% with Xbox content and services +16% and hardware -25%, search ex-TAC +20%); More Personal Computing goodwill acquired $51,235M — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. July 30, 2025 · source ↗
  19. ReportedConsole revenue fell 13% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025, then fell 29% in September, 32% in December and 33% in March.
    Microsoft Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 September 2025 — revenue by offering for the quarter and a year earlier, and the drivers (Azure +40%, Windows Server 2025, Windows OEM +18% ahead of Windows 10 end of support, Xbox hardware -29%, LinkedIn +10% on Marketing Solutions, search ex-TAC +16%, Microsoft 365 Commercial products +17% on Office 2024, Industry Solutions decline) — Q1 FY2026 · publ. October 29, 2025 · source ↗
  20. ReportedConsole revenue fell 13% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025, then fell 29% in September, 32% in December and 33% in March.
    Microsoft Form 10-Q, quarter ended 31 December 2025 — revenue by offering for the quarter, six months and a year earlier, and the drivers (Azure +39%, SQL Server 2025, Windows OEM +5% with continued benefit from Windows 10 end of support, Xbox hardware -32%, LinkedIn +11% on Marketing Solutions, search ex-TAC +10%, impairment charges in Gaming) — Q2 FY2026 · publ. January 28, 2026 · source ↗
  21. ReportedConsole revenue fell 13% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025, then fell 29% in September, 32% in December and 33% in March.
    Microsoft Form 10-Q, quarter ended 31 March 2026 — revenue by offering for the quarter, nine months and a year earlier, and the drivers (Azure +40%, Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud +19% and products +1%, Microsoft 365 Consumer cloud +33%, LinkedIn +12% across all lines, Dynamics 365 +22%, OEMs building inventory on rising memory prices, Xbox hardware -33%, search ex-TAC +12%) — Q3 FY2026 · publ. April 29, 2026 · source ↗
  22. ReportedThe company's own description of the business speaks of reaching gamers across PC, mobile and cloud and of new devices from third-party manufacturers, which reads as a company that no longer needs to sell the box.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 1 Business: what each segment and line comprises, what drives each line's revenue (Azure consumption, per-user Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, Windows OEM licensing factors, XBOX content and subscriptions, LinkedIn's four products), the fiscal 2026 renaming of Gaming to XBOX and of Search and news advertising to Search advertising, and each line's competition — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  23. Moat Explorer calcXBOX brought in $6.6 billion in the December 2024 quarter, the second holiday season after the deal, and $6.0 billion in December 2025; the June 2026 quarter was $5.0 billion, with content and services down 10%.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  24. ReportedXBOX brought in $6.6 billion in the December 2024 quarter, the second holiday season after the deal, and $6.0 billion in December 2025; the June 2026 quarter was $5.0 billion, with content and services down 10%.
    Microsoft, Q4 FY2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) — quarter ended June 30, 2026: revenue $90,007M (+18%); operating income $40,603M (+18%); net income $35,766M GAAP and $35,286M non-GAAP; diluted EPS $4.81 and $4.74; Microsoft Cloud revenue $59.3B (+27%); commercial remaining performance obligation +84% to $678B; Azure and other cloud services +43%; Productivity and Business Processes $37,847M (+14%); Intelligent Cloud $39,306M (+32%); More Personal Computing $12,854M (-4%); Windows OEM and Devices -7%; XBOX content and services -10%; a $3.2B gain on the investment in Anthropic and lower-than-expected Voluntary Retirement Program expenses contributing $0.27 of EPS against guidance; Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats; $10.2B returned to shareholders — Q4 FY2026 (quarter ended June 30, 2026) · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  25. Moat Explorer calcThe line fell from 7.3% of Microsoft's revenue in fiscal 2023 to 6.6% in fiscal 2026, even after the largest purchase in the company's history was added to it.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  26. Moat Explorer calcWhat XBOX earns is folded into More Personal Computing, which earned 26.6% of revenue in fiscal 2026, the lowest of the three segments.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Microsoft Forms 10-K (FY2017-FY2026) and 10-Q (FY2025-FY2026): growth = year / prior year - 1 on the revenue-by-offering tables; compound rates = (end / start)^(1/years) - 1; quarterly revenue for the fourth quarter = fiscal-year revenue less the nine-month figure in the third-quarter 10-Q; segment margins = segment operating income / segment revenue and gross margin = (segment revenue - cost of revenue) / segment revenue (Intelligent Cloud $57,853M / $87,464M = 66.1% in FY2024, $66,094M / $106,265M = 62.2% in FY2025, $79,915M / $137,791M = 58.0% in FY2026); share of FY2026 growth = line increase / total increase of $50,115M (Server products and cloud services $30,990M plus Microsoft 365 Commercial $14,230M = 90.2%); shares of revenue = line / total — FY2017-FY2026 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Moat Explorer calculation from the revenue-by-offering tables and segment results in Microsoft's Forms 10-K and 10-Q; see the source line for the method.
  27. ReportedThe segment's operating expenses rose 6% partly because of "impairment and other related expenses in our XBOX business".
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 7 MD&A: segment results (Productivity and Business Processes revenue $139,996M, cost of revenue $25,017M, operating income $83,879M; Intelligent Cloud $137,791M, $57,876M, $56,972M; More Personal Computing $54,052M, $23,481M, $14,386M) and the drivers of each line: Server products and cloud services +$31.0B or 31% (Azure +41%, server products +1%); Microsoft 365 Commercial +$14.2B or 16% (cloud +17% on seats +6%, products +13%); Microsoft 365 Consumer +$1.8B or 24% (cloud +28% on subscribers +7%); LinkedIn +$2.0B or 11%; Dynamics +$1.2B or 15% (Dynamics 365 +18%); Enterprise and partner services +$500M or 6%; Windows and Devices -$230M or 1% (Windows OEM +5%); XBOX -$1.7B or 7% (content and services -5%, hardware -29%); Search advertising +$1.3B or 9% (ex-TAC +12%); the Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriber metric removed — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  28. ReportedThe 10-K names the competition as other online gaming ecosystems and game streaming services, and other console platforms.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 1 Business: what each segment and line comprises, what drives each line's revenue (Azure consumption, per-user Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, Windows OEM licensing factors, XBOX content and subscriptions, LinkedIn's four products), the fiscal 2026 renaming of Gaming to XBOX and of Search and news advertising to Search advertising, and each line's competition — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  29. ReportedThe business description itself no longer centres the console: it speaks of how people play "on PC, console, mobile, and cloud".
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 1 Business: what each segment and line comprises, what drives each line's revenue (Azure consumption, per-user Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, Windows OEM licensing factors, XBOX content and subscriptions, LinkedIn's four products), the fiscal 2026 renaming of Gaming to XBOX and of Search and news advertising to Search advertising, and each line's competition — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
  30. ReportedContent and services growth is the figure that will settle it; it went from plus 16% in fiscal 2025 to minus 5% in fiscal 2026.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2025 — revenue by product and service offering on the recast basis, FY2023-FY2025 (Server products and cloud services $65,007M in FY2023; Windows and Devices $17,147M; Dynamics $5,796M; Enterprise and partner services $7,900M); the recast 'bringing the commercial components of Microsoft 365 together'; segment results FY2024-FY2025 (Intelligent Cloud revenue $87,464M and $106,265M, cost of revenue $29,611M and $40,171M, operating income $37,813M and $44,589M); FY2025 drivers (Azure +34%, server products -3%, Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud +15% on seats +6%, Office 2024, Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers 89.0 million after the January 2025 price increase, Dynamics 365 +19%, Gaming +9% with Xbox content and services +16% and hardware -25%, search ex-TAC +20%); More Personal Computing goodwill acquired $51,235M — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. July 30, 2025 · source ↗
  31. ReportedContent and services growth is the figure that will settle it; it went from plus 16% in fiscal 2025 to minus 5% in fiscal 2026.
    Microsoft Form 10-K, FY2026 — Item 7 MD&A: segment results (Productivity and Business Processes revenue $139,996M, cost of revenue $25,017M, operating income $83,879M; Intelligent Cloud $137,791M, $57,876M, $56,972M; More Personal Computing $54,052M, $23,481M, $14,386M) and the drivers of each line: Server products and cloud services +$31.0B or 31% (Azure +41%, server products +1%); Microsoft 365 Commercial +$14.2B or 16% (cloud +17% on seats +6%, products +13%); Microsoft 365 Consumer +$1.8B or 24% (cloud +28% on subscribers +7%); LinkedIn +$2.0B or 11%; Dynamics +$1.2B or 15% (Dynamics 365 +18%); Enterprise and partner services +$500M or 6%; Windows and Devices -$230M or 1% (Windows OEM +5%); XBOX -$1.7B or 7% (content and services -5%, hardware -29%); Search advertising +$1.3B or 9% (ex-TAC +12%); the Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriber metric removed — FY2026 · publ. July 29, 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 22, 2026