Good news for Microsoft’s accounting. The company has just published the financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 and their numbers stand out: Redmond’s figures have managed to pocket almost $61.9 billion, with net profits of $21.9 billion.
The growing demand for its cloud and artificial intelligence services seems to be the main driver behind these numbers. According to the report, in this quarter, Microsoft Cloud revenues were $35.1 billion, a 23% year-on-year increase. In addition, Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has also made the company the most valuable in the world.
As a surprise, revenues generated by Windows OEM licenses have also increased, specifically by 11%. This type of Windows licenses, intended for PC and laptop manufacturers, suffered during 2023 but have recovered throughout 2024.
On the other hand, console sales have plummeted this quarter, along with the revenue generated by the devices (17%). Here we refer to the Surface division, which includes Microsoft’s computers and tablets.
Regarding video games, they have become the fourth largest source of revenue, behind the cloud, Office, and Windows. All of this is due to Activision Blizzard. The report specifies that Xbox’s revenues from content and services increased by 62%, driven by the acquisition of Activision.
Despite the successes achieved with Xbox titles on other platforms, consoles have not managed to generate the same interest, with a 31% decrease this quarter. Without the purchase of Activision, the total amount generated by Microsoft in video games would have decreased during this quarter.
This controversial operation has been in the news for the past two years. Regulatory bodies in the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union threatened to ban the agreement because it could harm competition in the console market.
