The number of monthly active users (MAUs) on Microsoft's Xbox Live service was 63 million for the three months ending March 31st, 2019.

That's according to the Big M's financial report, which shows that Xbox Live MAUs dipped by one million quarter-on-quarter. For Q2 2019, the Xbox giant reported an active user base of 64m.

That 63m MAU figure is actually an increase of four million year-on-year, though in Q4 2018 and Q1 2019 Xbox Live had 57m active users each month.

The rise to 64m in the three months ending December 31st, 2018 will be due to the fact that a huge number of games launch in the final quarter of the year as well as people having time off and thus more leisure time.

So why are we reporting on this seemingly inconsequential drop? Microsoft is citing that 64m figure left and right when discussing its plans for the future of Xbox Live - including the service coming to mobile - so it's important to keep an eye on how many active users the company actually has.

Incidentally, in the GDC listing that outed the Big M's mobile Xbox Live plans, the company boasted 68m active users - though it's unclear whether this is in error or not. 

Meanwhile, cash flow from Microsoft's games business was up five per cent year-on-year for the three months ending March 31st, 2019.

The firm reported revenue of $2.36bn from its games business for the last quarter. That's up $112m from the $2.25bn that this side of the company brought in for the same time in the 2018 fiscal year.

PCGamesInsider.biz has the full story.