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Sony today announced its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, the three-month period ending December 2022. One of the facts it disclosed is that the number of users subscribing to PlayStation Plus is on the rise. Although the actual number of subscribers is not a record number, it is recovering from a slump following the launch of the “Spartacus” revamp.
The figures show that PlayStation Plus now has a subscriber base of approximately 46.4 million subscribers. In the second quarter of the year (July-September), the number of subscribers was 45.4 million. This was a sharp drop from 47.3 million users in the first quarter. While there is no causal relationship between the two, the Spartacus change to PlayStation Plus was rolled out in June 2022. The update added two more expensive tiers to the service and added several much-requested features to those more expensive tiers.
Aside from subscribers, the PlayStation Network (which can be accessed through PS Plus) has 112 million monthly active users. This increase could be partly due to the increasing supply of PlayStation 5 consoles on the market.
PS Plus and Sony’s efforts to expand into subscriptions
PlayStation Plus has suffered at times compared to its cousin, Xbox’s Game Pass. While the two offer similar tiered subscription services and a generous library of games for those who participate, there is one critical difference between the two: Game Pass offers games to users the moment they launch. PlayStation Plus users will have to pay full price for a game at launch or wait for it to be added to the Plus library at a later date, if ever.
However, Sony has increased the number of games it adds to PlayStation Plus each month. While the lion’s share of games move to the higher tiers, they include not only triple-A titles, but also retro games.
The number of subscribers for PS Plus sat at 48 million in Q3 2021, so the service has even more ground to recover. But the increase in numbers suggests new users are signing up or previous subscribers are starting to return.
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