PlayStation Plus is Growing Faster
A senior Sony official revealed that PlayStation Plus is growing faster than ever before.
The Success of Playstation Plus
June 29 will mark the 15th anniversary of Sony launching PS Plus. The original service cost $50 per year and included free monthly games for the PS3 and PSP, automatic PS3 updates, a feature later consoles did not lock behind a subscription, exclusive discounts, beta access, and cloud saves, among other perks. Notably, PlayStation Plus was not required for online multiplayer on the PS3, a policy that changed with subsequent consoles.
15 years following its original launch, PS Plus is not only going strong but growing faster than ever. That’s according to PlayStation VP and Global Head of Subscriptions Nick Maguire, who reflected on the service’s current performance in a recent interview with Game File’s Stephen Totilo. In an encouraging sign for profitability, Sony is seeing the strongest user engagement and subscriber growth in its most expensive tier, the $160 per year Premium plan, which grew 18% over the last 12 months, as per the same source. Subscriptions are also a reliable indicator of hardware spending, with over 81% of current PS Plus subscribers owning Sony’s current gen console, the PS5, up 11 points year over year.
Sony still isn’t saying exactly how many people are subscribed to PS Plus, instead emphasizing alternative performance metrics. For example, Maguire noted that playtime for first- and third-party games over the past 12 months surpassed 2 billion hours. As of now, nearly 40% of subscribers are on the Extra or Premium tiers, leaving just over 60% of users with an Essential membership. Looking ahead, Sony plans to maintain its strategy of offering recent but not brand new titles through PS Plus. Day one releases à la what Xbox Game Pass is doing aren’t on the agenda, presumably because those are still selling well to the point of Sony not wanting to cannibalize their sales with PS Plus.
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