The new combined PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus game subscription service is off to a rough start and sales of PlayStation 5 consoles lag significantly behind PlayStation 4.
PlayStation Plus was relaunched as a gaming service with three tiers (Essential, Extra, and Premium) in late Q2 2022. Since then, the number of subscribers has dropped from 47.3 to 45.4 million in Q3 2022, according to Sony's latest earnings report.
PS Plus subscribers. Diagram: Sony
The loss is actually significantly higher if you include PlayStation Now that had over 3 million subscribers prior to the merger.
On the other hand average revenue per PlayStation Plus subscriber is up 21% year-over-year which means that a good portion of subscribers have upgraded to PS Plus Extra or Premium.
The current market conditions have not helped but PlayStation Plus is clearly not a breakaway success. Xbox Game Pass grew 28% between July 2021 and June 2022, according to Microsoft's filings, which is lower than the company's expected 72.8% growth rate. Xbox Game Pass hit 25 million subscribers in January 2022.
Unlike Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus is not available as an app for any Smart TV or mobile device. Sony does not include day-one game releases from its own game studios either.
Despite an improved supply situation, Sony sold only 3.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in Q3 2022 – flat versus Q3 2021. Lifetime shipments of PS5 reached 25 million which compares to over 29 million for PS4 through its first eight quarters.
- Source: Sony, Daniel Ahmad
