
There’s no doubt that PS Plus plateaued during the pandemic, and Sony has struggled to grow the service beyond 50 million active subscribers. That ceiling has meant the platform holder has turned its attention to extracting more revenue from each individual member, and the strategy appears to be working with the implementation of the various new tiers.
PS Plus did rebound slightly in the quarter ending 31st December, registering 46.4 million subscribers, up from 45.4 the quarter prior. However, year-over-year, the trajectory is still trending downwards: for the same quarter in 2021, the manufacturer had 47.4 million subscribers. That number, itself, was down 600k compared to the quarter before it.
So while it isn’t an enormous drop-off, there are generally less PS Plus subscribers now than there has been previously. But one reason for optimism is that Sony is making more money per user: its network services segment generated a record ¥122.2 billion (~$952 million) in the most recent quarter, owing mainly to exchange rates but also to the new PS Plus tiers.
Sony will be hoping that, even if PS Plus does continue to decline, it can convert more of its active subscribers to PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium, thus increasing the overall income each user is creating. There’s still good room for growth in this department, so we feel positive about its outlook – and at the end of the day, it all means better incentives for existing members as the firm tries to improve its numbers.
[source sony.com]
Comments 13
Growing by a million users in a quarter and over 2% in subsc numbers is not slight rebound. Just saying, it would be a huge win if that trend could be kept through the year (did the numbers quickly, annual growth would be 9,25%, which is a lot for established subsc service). Maybe report numbers are wrong?
I've subbed for a couple of months over the past 5-6 months, just cancelled again yesterday. Quite a few games but as I scroll through nothing I really want to play.. or rather nothing I want to wait for a download on, and then play. It looks like online will be a big part of Diablo 4 so I might have to have an active sub going for a while once that launches.
Dear Sony, please introduce a tier with just online gaming, cloud saves and discounts. I’d subscribe in a heartbeat.
How about you ***** stupid ***** give us older games again
@Feena
Personally I think the ability to play online should be free. I do however think the amount of "free" games we get does more than justify the price of PS Plus
@Member_the_game While FREE sounds good on paper, many of us remember what the online service was like when it was in fact free and would gladly pay for a better service than that!
Yep was always going to go down compared to lockdown.
For me the jury's still out on new PS+ Extra primarily. Initially the games that dropped were great and kept me busy for many months. But while there were are always a couple of games i'm interested in each month, not always enough to prioritise them. I feel they need some Sony first party titles on there. Where is Sackboy? Where is Ratchet and Clank Ripped Apart?
It's a good service right now, but not great.
@themightyant
I'm my defense I very rarely play online (with the exception of Mario kart on my Switch) so I'm not best qualified to comment on the quality.
I do subscribe to Premium but obviously it's for the games rather than online play
Revenue will probably fall somewhat as more people get tired of the practical joke that is Premium and either downgrade to Extra (which is actually good value) or drop the service altogether. They can either improve what it offers or see that unfold.
@Member_the_game The whole reason PSN was hacked and XBOX Live wasn't was because of the free service. Sony thought "we ain't making money off it, so let's apply the least possible resources to it."
Nowadays I assume your PSN money is paying for something slightly more impressive than McAfee.
As an aside, I think Premium Tier needs to upgrade its value or that revenue is going to plummet even more. I know, not an original opinion, but I do feel that it is missing something.
Half price on brand new games, PlayStation Stars benefits, the classics that we were promised. Something.
Now I was a long-term subscriber from 2010 and then had PS Now in addition for a time after getting a decent discount..the tiers automatically upgraded me to Premium which was nice but I didn't make the most of the classics collection/streaming as I thought. So when Black Friday came around I was going to buy a year or two's worth of Extra, but because the Premium hadn't expired they wouldn't let me subscribe to any other tier even if I cancelled it!
So Sony lost me altogether for now as I let the sub expire earlier this month and haven't resubscribed for even Essential.
@themightyant i remember when the online was free on the ps3 and it was piss poor to be honest. Horrible lag in most games and i'm very happy to pay to keep it tip top. I'd love it to be free but it would probably return to being awful again..i sub to extra as its very good value as far as i'm concerned.
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