PlayStation Plus Up 3.4 Million Users, to 44.9 Million
- Paul Thurrott
- Aug 04, 2020
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As part of its quarterly earnings announcement, Sony said that its PlayStation Plus subscription service added 3.4 million users, for 44.9 million total. This is the biggest single-quarter subscriber gain that Sony has ever reported.
For the quarter ending June 30, Sony reported net income of $2.2 billion on revenues of $18.57 billion. The firm’s gaming business contributed $14 billion of those revenues, a gain of 32 percent year-over-year.
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The firm credited a “significant increase” in both game software sales and PlayStation Plus sales for the gains, no doubt pandemic-related, and helping to offset a decline in PlayStation 4 hardware sales. Sony expects its hardware sales to rebound in the current fiscal year due to the pending launch of the PlayStation 5.
Sony also reported that the title Ghost of Tsushima, which launched late in the quarter, sold 2.4 million units to consumers in the first three days since launch, making it the fastest selling in-house new game software IP for the PlayStation 4 ever.
One interesting note: Sony’s gains with its PS Plus service come amidst rumors that Microsoft could be killing off its similar Xbox Live Gold subscription service in lieu of its more expensive Xbox Game Pass. Sony also offers a game streaming service called PS Now that competes more directly with Game Pass, but the firm didn’t provide any details about that service during its earnings announcement.