Sony relaunched PlayStation Plus back in June, offering subscribers a new service with three tiers (Essential, Extra and Premium) with the more expensive options serving up new features like a classic game collection, cloud streaming, and time-limited trials. So, how has the big relaunch gone? Well, according to Sony’s most recent financials, it’s a bit of a good-new, bad-news situation.
Per Sony’s Q2 fiscal year 2022 results, which cover the period from July 1 to September 30, PS Plus actually lost 1.9 million subscribers during the quarter, going from 47.3 million to 45.4 million. Not exactly what you’re looking for from a big, flashy relaunch of a service. That said, there is a fairly significant silver lining – the more expensive PS Plus tiers are generating more money for Sony, with the company bringing in $117 million in “network services revenue” in Q2. This is an all-time Q2 record, although it’s not radically higher than what Sony was bringing in before – in Q1, prior to the PS Plus relaunch, Sony generated $106 million in network revenue.
Overall, the new PS Plus could be said to be a somewhat muted success. It’s not driving a ton of new subscriptions, but it is making Sony a bit more money. As for why those PS Plus subs are down, in a statement provided to Video Games Chronicle, Sony insists it’s mainly because of declining subscriptions on the fading PS4 platform.
“The number of PlayStation Plus subscriber accounts at the end of September decreased 4% from the end of June to 45.4 million accounts. We see that this decrease results from a greater decline in user engagement among PlayStation 4 (PS4) users than expected. On the other hand, the ratio of PS Plus subscribers among PlayStation 5 (PS5) users remains at a level significantly higher than that of PS4.”
So, in the end, perhaps the main takeaway is that Sony really needs to start fully focusing their efforts on the PS5, because the userbase still stuck on the PS4 isn’t a particularly engaged one. What are your thoughts on the subject? Have you been enjoying the new PS Plus?
