Xbox Cloud Gaming grew dramatically this year – and in a surprising place, too

Microsoft has published new figures that show a massive increase in the number of people playing games via Xbox Cloud Gaming.

That's partly because the service has been expanding aggressively into new markets, and partly because the service is now available on a much wider range of devices. But there's also a surprising statistic amongst the numbers.

Xbox owners are spending 45% more time streaming from the cloud – and from their consoles. Given the choice between downloading and streaming, a growing number of gamers are choosing the latter.

Year on year, the number of hours spent by Game Pass subscribers playing Xbox Cloud Gaming is up by 45%. "Console players are embracing flexibility," Microsoft says. "[They are] spending 45% more time cloud streaming on console and 24% more on other devices."

Why are console players switching to streaming?

The short answer appears to be because it's less hassle.

With game downloads getting ever larger, the convenience of just hitting play and waiting a few moments to stream from the cloud seems to be more important to many gamers than getting the best frame rates or image quality. They don't want to wait hours to download games anymore, it seems.

While it's recently been upgraded to deliver 1440p and 60fps, Xbox Cloud Gaming isn't as high quality as the 4K 120fps downloaded games can deliver. But it seems that many gamers aren't particularly bothered by that.

I'm one of them, because having gaming kids means there's never enough space on my Xbox Series X (or PS5) to keep all the games they and I play installed. That means I'll often end up streaming a game because I don't have the time or the space for the full download.

It'll be interesting to see how the next set of numbers look in 2026. Microsoft has just brought Xbox Cloud Gaming to India, the world's fastest-growing gaming market, and it's attracting lots of new subscribers in markets such as Argentina and Brazil.

The service is now also available on new platforms, including LG TVs and Fire TVs. But on the other hand, the firm has also recently hiked its prices quite dramatically in some markets.

Despite the price rises, user numbers are likely to grow: Microsoft is reportedly planning a free, ad-supported, GeForce Now-style tier for Xbox Cloud Gaming in 2026 that would bring the service to a whole new group of gamers.