Over half of Xbox Live users had Gold accounts in 2008
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that just over half of Xbox Live subscribers have paid Gold accounts as of February 2008. The information comes directly from an Excel workbook from within Microsoft. According to the document, 56 percent of worldwide Xbox Live subscribers paid for Gold accounts, while a full 60 percent of American subscribers did so. As the Post Intelligencer notes, these numbers existed well before the launch of the New Xbox Experience, which ushered in a surge of Xbox Live activity and presumably new members.
Though it would not confirm exact numbers, Microsoft did state that the majority of its 17 million current Xbox Live members do have Gold accounts. Assuming last year's percentage has held steady, that's $50 a year from 9.5 million users. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of teabagging.
