Key takeaways
- Sony revealed that PS Plus revenue increased last year.
- PS Plus revenue grew 18% year-over-year despite negative sentiment about the service's big price hike in 2023.
- The increase was driven by higher revenue per PS Plus subscriber due to price increases and additional service and an increased shift to premium tiers.
Sony's latest earnings report shows that PlayStation Plus Generating more money than ever before. Although PS Plus raised prices substantially last year, the subscription service's profit margins haven't had the impact some had hoped.
Back in 2022, Sony introduced a major restructuring to PlayStation Plus, splitting the subscription service into three tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. PS Plus Essential offers a rotating set of monthly games, cloud saves, online play, and more, basically operating like the previous services. The more expensive PS Plus Extra tier has a Netflix-esque library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, and the flagship Premium tier adds PS5 and PS3 cloud streaming and emulated classics from the PS1, PS2, and PSP generations.
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PS Plus Premium is adding 5 games on November 19th
PlayStation confirms five games coming to the premium tier of the PlayStation Plus subscription service in November 2024.
In August 2023, Sony announced a hefty 35% price increase for all PS Plus tiers. Many members criticized the price increase because at the time PS Plus additions were included, eg saint row and Generation ZeroAlso there are no new benefits for the service. Despite the complaints, Sony's recent Q2 earnings report for FY2025 revealed PS Plus revenue grew 18% year over year. The PS Plus price increase went into effect on September 6, 2023, and the report includes data through September 30, 2024.
PS Plus members have largely followed the 2023 price increase
Sony cited an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), mainly due to a 2023 price increase and increased migration of customers to PS Plus' Extra and Premium tiers, as the main driver of the service's growth last year. This means that the PS Plus price increase has done nothing to reduce subscribers for the service or encourage Extra and Premium members to downgrade to the cheaper essential tier. Since Sony stopped updating PS Plus subscriber numbers, it's unclear how many PlayStation users currently subscribe to the service.
PS Plus continues to provide a stable base of revenue as sales grew 18% year-over-year on a US dollar basis. This is due to the increase in ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) mainly as a result of changes in higher levels of service and impact of price revisions.
It remains to be seen whether these results will encourage Sony to consider future price increases for the PS Plus. Given the nature of subscription services, however, additional PS Plus price increases may be implemented in the future, regardless of whether the latter helps the service's revenue or not. Thankfully, PS Plus has slowly been adding more value for customers, especially in the premium tier, through a new PS2 emulator and an enhanced focus on classic games. There are also heavy hitters in PS Plus Extras and Premium Addons for November 2024 GTA 5, Dying light 2, Dragon-Like : Ishinand more.
PlayStation 5
Sony's PlayStation 5 is part of the ninth console generation and debuted with a launch lineup that included Demon's Souls and Astro's Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital-only version is also available at a cheaper price.
