Microsoft Australia has confirmed that it’s Xbox LIVE online service has had its best year on record with a 50 per cent subscriber growth year-on-year and 8.3 million online purchases made for the period.

According to Microsoft, over the past year subscribers in Australia and New Zealand grew to more than 450,000 and made 8.3 million purchases on the service, this is an increase of more than 72 per cent compared to the previous year.

In addition, customers spent more than 136 hours on Xbox LIVE in 2009, an increase of more than 36 per cent YOY.

“Xbox 360 continues to deliver new and compelling entertainment experiences through its Xbox LIVE service. The introduction of our Movies on Demand service in November, which offers HD movies streamed direct to television, has particularly resonated with Australian customers. The service was accessed by more than 100,000 subscribers in its first eight weeks alone,” said David McLean, head of entertainment, Microsoft ANZ.

“We’ve invested significantly in building our local Xbox LIVE community and the ANZ market now supports one of the biggest LIVE communities anywhere in the world. Subscribers can also access popular social networking sites through Xbox LIVE such as Facebook and Twitter, which have been specifically optimised for the living room ‘big TV’-style viewing experience.

The growing demand for online services sets us up particularly well for the future, as online entertainment continues to surpass all expectations and clearly demonstrates the growth opportunities that exist in the ANZ region.”

In terms of console sales the Xbox 360 recorded YOY growth of 12 per cent and revenue growth of more than 13 per cent. Over 950,000 Xbox 360 consoles are installed across the ANZ region, and around half are connected to Xbox LIVE.

McLean was very confident about the year ahead for Xbox 360.

“As we look ahead to the coming year, we expect 2010 to be the year of the Xbox, with the release of our strongest ever games line-up, including the highly anticipated Xbox 360 exclusives; Mass Effect 2, Fable 3, Alan Wake, Crackdown 2 and probably the biggest title of the year, Halo Reach.”