People are spending a lot more time on Xbox Cloud Gaming

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it is expanding its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to India. This allows Xbox gamers to stream select games via the cloud, as long as they own an Xbox Game Pass subscription. Although your Xbox Cloud Gaming experience is highly dependent on your internet speed, it seems like Microsoft is making decent headway in penetrating various markets.

According to Microsoft, cloud gaming hours via Game Pass have increased by 45% compared to the same time last year. More interestingly, gamers are spending 45% more time on consoles and 24% more hours on other devices.

The company highlighted its recent cloud gaming expansion into India, noting that the country boasts over 500 million gamers. The service is now available in 29 countries and is also gaining traction in Argentina and Brazil, two regions which have demonstrated "double digital growth" both in terms of hours played and active players. This growth has accelerated to the point that Microsoft has had to increase its server capacity for these markets so that customers don't have to wait in long digital queues.

Microsoft has emphasized that the continuous expansion of the Xbox Cloud Gaming library, along with the service's availability across various devices and form factors, ranging from consoles, PCs, handhelds, VR, and eventually, cars, has "fundamentally changed how and where players experience games".

Perhaps one of the drivers behind the growth of Xbox Cloud Gaming is the fact that it was decoupled from the expensive Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier back in August. Reportedly, Microsoft is also internally testing an ad-supported free tier for cloud gaming, but there's no confirmation yet on whether such an experience will roll out to the general public at some point. Prior to this, there were indications that the company would launch a cheaper cloud gaming-only tier too, but anything of the sort is yet to materialize.