Microsoft owns 20 $1B game franchises

Microsoft has snapped up some of the biggest franchises in gaming over the past five years. While Microsoft Gaming is not currently the biggest publisher in terms of annual revenue, it does own a vast number of franchises that have generated over $1 billion. 

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, published his annual open letter this week, looking back at the past 12 months inside of Microsoft and all that was achieved along the way. In the 2023-2024 period, Microsoft generated over $245 billion in revenue, a staggering feat that calls into question the reasoning behind mass lay-offs earlier in the year.

Gaming isn't the main focus of letter, but it does get its own little section, in which Nadella proudly reveals that Microsoft now owns 20 franchises that have generated over $1 billion in revenue. This number was of course bolstered by the acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023, which saw franchises like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft and more falling under the Microsoft umbrella.

Unfortunately, Nadella doesn't list off all 20 franchises, but he does give particular shout-outs to the biggest hitters, including COD, Candy Crush, Warcraft, Diablo, The Elder Scrolls, Halo and Gears of War. We would be surprised if franchises like Fallout, Forza and Minecraft didn't also make that list of $1 billion franchises. The tricky part now for Microsoft is going to be keeping all of those franchises going.

KitGuru Says: Microsoft has an army of studios and IP to work with, now it just needs to buckle down and deliver the big games fans have been waiting for since the acquisition spree began in 2018.  

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