Even though the Xbox and Xbox 360 have been, hardware wise, a drain on money, and the 360 even moreso, the platform as a whole has been a stunning success. Particularly with Xbox Live, Microsoft has crafted for themselves one of the largest group of online gamers ever.

According to Microsoft now, owners of the Xbox and Xbox 360 are quite fond of Xbox Live to the tune of 7.1 million users of the service. A large percentage of that is from the Xbox 360 alone, in whch about a third of owners will use the service.

Microsoft expects nothing but continued growth for Xbox Live, predicting that Xbox Live Arcade alone, an extension that many have not heard about, will see more than 45 million downloads before the end of this year.