Microsoft was the biggest holiday season games publisher across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms, driven by the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. That’s according to the 2024 Holiday Season Games Publisher Ranking just released by Ampere Analysis’ Games team. Spending on Microsoft games across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms in December 2024 totalled $465m, or 16.4% share of spend. 

Microsoft has Activision Blizzard’s titles to thank for its first place in the ranking. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 propelled Call of Duty HQ to a new high of almost 38m MAUs (monthly active users) in November 2024 across consoles and Steam, entering December in a strong position. 64% of consumer spending on Microsoft’s titles in December was on PlayStation consoles with that share being driven by Black Ops 6 

Second-placed EA saw its broad portfolio across PlayStation, Xbox and Steam deliver a solid performance in December. Its biggest franchise, EA Sports FC scored impressive scale yet again, although performance is down on last year’s release. The title regularly generates over $2bn in annual revenue. 

China’s Tencent entered the top 10 games publishers over the holiday season for the first time after the release of Path of Exile 2 into early access on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. Indeed, December was a standout month for successful launches with four Chinese-owned games making the biggest impact: Marvel Rivals (NetEase), Path of Exile 2 (Grinding Gear Games/Tencent), Infinity Nikki (Papergames), and Delta Force (Tencent). 

Chinese publishers or their subsidiaries have been increasingly tapping global markets to drive growth in response to less predictable domestic sales. The growing global scale of major Chinese publishers adds a new dynamic to the console and PC gaming markets, and inevitably means added competition in what is already a hyper-competitive industry.

For further analysis, download the full report here: https://info.ampereanalysis.com/games