Xbox CEO Asha Sharma sets target to reach over a billion daily users amid studio cuts
Xbox chief Asha Sharma announced a goal of entertaining more than a billion people each day, even as the company prepares to spin off four studios and lay off about 3,600 employees.
Xbox chief Asha Sharma said she wants the brand to become one of the few companies that "entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect." In an internal memo, she added that Xbox’s portfolio of popular franchises and global studios should enable the company to return to growth by 2027. The statement was made as Xbox prepares to separate four of its studios and reduce its workforce by roughly 3,600 staff.
Sharma’s target includes users of Xbox services such as Game Pass, not just console players. Industry benchmarks show the scale of the ambition: Fortnite’s record daily peak in November 2023 was 44.7 million players, while Roblox reached 47.4 million the previous year. Combined, those peaks fall far short of the one-billion mark.
Xbox still retains major developers, including Mojang and King, which will now report directly to Sharma. Mojang’s Minecraft has sold between 350 million and 400 million copies across all platforms since its launch, and King’s Candy Crush, a free-to-play mobile title, has been downloaded over 3.6 billion times with more than 100 million daily active users. Even together, these figures represent only a fraction of the stated daily audience goal.
