Key Takeaways
- Sony announced that PS Plus revenue increased last year.
- PS Plus revenue rose 18% year-over-year despite negative sentiment surrounding the service's 2023 price hike.
- The increase comes from more revenue per PS Plus customer due to higher prices and increased growth in Extra and Premium services.
Sony's latest earnings report bears this out PlayStation Plus is generating more money than ever. Although PS Plus has experienced a significant increase in the past year, the subscription service's profits have not been affected as some had hoped.
In 2022, Sony introduced a major update to PlayStation Plus by dividing the subscription service into three levels – Essential, Extra and Premium. PS Plus Essential offers a rotating set of monthly games, cloud storage, online games, and more, working similarly to the previous service. The more expensive PS Plus Extra tier features a Netflix-esque library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, and the flagship Premium tier adds even more PS5 and PS3 cloud streaming and emulated classics from PS1, PS2 , and PSP generation.
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PS Plus Premium adds 5 games on November 19
PlayStation confirms five games that will come to the Premium level of the PlayStation Plus subscription service in November 2024.
In August 2023, Sony announced a 35% price increase for all PS Plus tiers. Many consumers blamed the price hike on a selection of critical PS Plus add-ons at the time, such as Saints Row SY Generation Zeroand also no new benefits for the service. Despite the complaints, Sony's latest Q2 earnings report for FY2025 revealed that PS Plus revenue rose 18% year over year. PS Plus price increases began on September 6, 2023, and the report covers data through September 30, 2024.
PS Plus customers will follow the price increase until 2023
Sony cited the increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), mainly due to price increases in 2023 and the migration of customers to PS Plus' Extra and Premium tiers, as a key driver behind last year's service growth. This means that the increased price of PS Plus did little to attract customers to the service or encourage Extra and Premium members to drop down to the cheaper Essential tier. Since Sony hasn't updated PS Plus subscriber numbers, it's unclear how many PlayStation users are currently signed up for the service.
PS Plus provides solid revenue growth as sales in US dollars grew 18% year-over-year. This is due to the increase in ARPU (average revenue per user) resulting from the migration of services to higher tiers and the impact of price revisions.
It remains to be seen whether these results will encourage Sony to consider raising the price of PS Plus. Given the nature of the subscription service, however, more price increases for PS Plus can be implemented in the future, regardless of whether the service has added revenue or not in the end. Fortunately, PS Plus has gradually added value to consumers, especially at the Premium level, with a new PS2 emulator and a greater focus on classic games. PS Plus and Premium add-ons for November 2024 include heavy hitters as well GTA 5, Death Light 2, Like a dragon: Ishinand many others.
PlayStation 5
Sony's PlayStation 5 is part of the ninth console generation and launched with a launch lineup that included Demon's Souls and Astro's Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital edition is also available for a cheaper price.
