Microsoft shared its first quarter 2021 results, with a reporting revenue of $37.2 billion and a net income of $13.9 billion, bolstered significantly by the pandemic.

Revenue is up by 12% while net income skyrocketed by 30%, boosted by categories Xbox, Surface and cloud services thanks to the major shift in consumer behaviour during COVID-19.

Microsoft hugely benefited from the advent of more people working from home, playing games and connecting to friends, family and co-workers via videoconferencing.

Cloud services was the biggest boost to revenue, with Office 365 Commercial revenue increasing by 21%. Azure revenue also grew by 48%.

Consumer use of Office 365 also jumped by 27%, with subscribers on this platform rising to 45.3 million.

Surface revenue also drove Microsoft’s impressive growth, with revenue jumping by 37% in a quarter which didn’t even see any new Surface products introduced.

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Go and upgraded Surface Pro X will count towards 2021 Q2 revenue.

In the gaming arena, Microsoft enjoyed a similarly impressive revenue lift. Xbox content and gaming services revenue rose by 30%, or $649 million.

Pre-orders for Xbox Series S and X pre-orders, available November 10, were not counted towards this quarter. Gaming revenue overall grew by $550 million, or 22%.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the start of COVID-19 the company had experienced “two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months”, and it appears the tech giant will be riding the pandemic wave into the next quarter.