PlayStation Plus Sees Major Drop In Subscribers

Back in March, PlayStation announced that it would be overhauling its online gaming service PlayStation Plus, which allows you to play games online, and PlayStation Now, a cloud streaming service, into one single package. 

The package which is being called All-New PlayStation Plus is to be the rival to competitor Xbox Game Pass, and will consist of three tiers giving different levels of access to games. While some have been confused as to just how the new system will work with existing subscribers, PlayStation have been scaling back on ways to subscribe ready for the new system to take over in June. 

Take a look at one of the best PlayStation exclusive titles Ratchet And Clank: Rift Apart in our gameplay below. 

It’s no surprise then, that PlayStation lost subscribers this quarter in the run up to the new system. In the annual earning report (as spotted by GamesRadar+) PlayStation saw a drop in subscribers to its PlayStation Plus service of 600,000. While this number is obviously three times larger than Netflix’s loss of 200,000 accounts leading to a $50 billion loss from its market cap, it is not as devastating for Sony who expected the loss in the run up to the changeover.

In the last financial quarter Sony reported 48 million subscribers to PS Plus, which has now dipped to 47.4 million. This still puts the number of customers to PlayStation’s services way ahead of its competitive counterparts, Nintendo and Xbox, which previously reported just 32 and 25 million subscribers respectively at the last count. 

The more worrying figure is that PlayStation’s active monthly users dropped 5 million this quarter, though CFO and executive deputy president Hiroki Totoki doesn’t seem concerned. He claims the more important number is total play time which has remained relatively stable. 

“The stay-at-home demand was a temporary factor, but after it has subsided, it seems to me that a high level of engagement is maintained. So on a mid-term basis, I don't see much concern from PS Plus. I'm sure that the high level of engagement will continue. That's a positive take that I have."