According to the Redmond-based tech giant, its cloud service is becoming increasingly popular among Xbox Game Pass users.

The company announced the launch of Xbox Cloud Gaming in India, the world’s fastest-growing gaming market, which is expected to have more than 500 million gamers by 2025. Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available in 29 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Microsoft recently increased server capacity in Argentina and Brazil to reduce latency and improve the player experience, after seeing double-digit growth in playtime and active players in these Latin American countries. Xbox Cloud Gaming appears to be growing globally as well. According to Microsoft, Game Pass subscribers’ cloud gaming time has increased by 45% compared to the same period last year. Console gamers are embracing the flexibility too, spending 45% more time with cloud streaming on consoles and 24% more time on other devices.

Microsoft recently introduced new gaming options via the Xbox app on LG TVs and Amazon Fire TV devices, in addition to PCs, consoles, smartphones, tablets, and VR headsets such as Meta Quest. Although its use in this particular environment is likely to be limited, Xbox Cloud Gaming will soon be available in cars as well. One of the few positives of the recent controversial changes to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service is that Xbox Cloud Gaming is now included in several tiers, whereas previously it was only available in the Ultimate tier. The library of compatible games is expanding too, with hundreds of games ready to stream through Xbox Game Pass and over a thousand more in the “Stream Your Own Game” catalog, which regularly adds new titles.

The only drawback is that, despite some recent improvements such as 1440p support for certain games, Microsoft’s XCloud technology, which powers Xbox Cloud Gaming, is still not as good as Nvidia GeForce Now. According to a recent rumor, Xbox Cloud Gaming may soon be free with ads. If it ever happens, that would certainly make it a viable alternative.

Source: WCCFTech