Sony's PlayStation Plus service suffered a significant loss, as the company lost millions of subscribers in the months since it relaunched.
As reported by VGC, Sony's latest financial report showed that PlayStation Plus lost 1.9 million subscribers between its relaunch in June and September. Sony's CFO Hiroki Totoki noted that there had been a lack of "momentum" for the service, which he partly attributed to PlayStation's lack of aggressive marketing for it during the second quarter. The subscription numbers dropped along with the release of the relaunched service, which Sony intended to mirror Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass.
PlayStation Loses Subscribers But Gains Revenue
Despite the loss, PlayStation Plus' subscription number remains high; from June to September, the service only dropped from 47.3 million to 45.4 million subscribers, nearly double that of the Xbox Game Pass. This similarly matched PlayStation Network's reported monthly active users, which dropped from 103 million to 102 million the following quarter. These losses, coupled with a reported 10% revenue increase, show PlayStation has begun making more money per subscriber than before the revamp.
Sony issued a statement on the matter, clarifying that the losses largely stem from PlayStation 4 gamers. "The number of PlayStation Plus subscriber accounts at the end of September decreased 4% from the end of June to 45.4 million accounts," the company told VGC. "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. We are putting even more effort into accelerating the penetration of PS5 hardware to recover this user engagement going forward."
The PlayStation/Xbox Console Wars
The move to revamp PlayStation Plus came amid stiff competition between the two major consoles. For the last year, Xbox Series X|S outsold PlayStation 5 by a considerable margin. This partly has to do with the comparable ease in manufacturing the Series S, with that model considerably easier to find in stock over the more expensive Serie X and PlayStation 5. Despite or because of its popularity in sales, the Xbox Series X|S also hold the honor of being the most complained about gaming console in the world, with PlayStation 5 coming in last for online complaints.
In the meantime, Sony continues to refine the PlayStation 5. A lighter model is reportedly in the works, while Sony plans to ship out far more PlayStation 5's in 2023 than it has done since the console's release. PlayStation 5 also has a Discord chat integration on the way and a recent 4KHD upgrade to its Disney+ app.
Source: VGC