Microsoft sent out a pretty radical press release today announcing some pretty massive milestones, including 76 million Xbox 360s sold to date, 46 million active Xbox LIVE members, and 24 million Kinect sensors in the hands of gamers.
That’s a pretty wild leap considering that Microsoft was the total underdog just over a decade ago when they unveiled the first Xbox. No doubt that games like Halo and Gears of War helped propel their success, but there’s no denying that the Xbox 360 moniker has risen to household status around the globe.
Xbox LIVE user figures are based around both Gold and Silver memberships, so not all 46 million are paying subscribers, but we have to assume a healthy chunk are or the service wouldn’t be able to sustain itself. That group of members has also risen about 15% over last year’s figure of around 40 million members.
Some other interesting stats that Aaron Greenberg confirmed on Twitter are that Xbox 360 users are comprised of 38% women, and 51% of all users have kids. The female statistic isn’t all too surprising, actually, but the fact that over half of gamers have children tells us that the Xbox 360 is effectively targeting mature audiences. We’re not sure if this is counting people who bought an Xbox for their kids as the main owner, thus inflating the number, but that doesn’t seem to be the case as far as we can tell.
Newly appointed President of Entertainment and Digital Media Nancy Tellem has said that Microsoft will be ready to launch about 40 custom Xbox entertainment apps in the calendar year. That number seems really high to us, but we have a feeling a new console might have something to do with it? Rumour has it the next Xbox specs have been leaked again, but in the interest of not writing another article about more proposed leaks, take a look for yourself at one of Our Favourite Sites.