Key things
- Sony reveals that PS Plus earnings have grown over the past year.
- PS Plus profits rose 18% year-on-year, despite negative sentiment surrounding the service's big price hike in 2023.
- The growth comes from higher revenue per PS Plus subscriber due to price increases and a growing shift to Extra and Premium tiers.
Sony's latest earnings report shows this PlayStation Plus generates more money than ever. Although PS Plus underwent a substantial price increase last year, the subscription service's profit margins weren't as strong as some might have expected.
In 2022, Sony implemented a major restructuring of PlayStation Plus by splitting the subscription service into three tiers – Essential, Extra and Premium. PS Plus Essential offers a rotating set of monthly games, cloud storage, online play and more, basically working exactly the same as the service before. The more expensive PS Plus Extra tier includes a Netflix-style library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, and the flagship Premium tier further adds PS5 and PS3 cloud streaming and emulated classics from the PS1, PS2 and PSP generations.
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PS Plus Premium Adding 5 games on November 19th
PlayStation confirms five games coming to the Premium level of the PlayStation Plus subscription service in November 2024.
In August 2023, Sony announced a significant price increase of 35% for all PS Plus tiers. Many subscribers criticized the price hike due to a selection of critically lacking PS Plus additions at the time, such as Saints Row and Generation zeroas well as no new benefits for the service. Despite complaints, Sony's recent FY2025 Q2 earnings report revealed that PS Plus profits rose 18% year-on-year.. The PS Plus price increase took effect on September 6, 2023, and the report covers dates until September 30, 2024.
PS Plus subscribers have largely kept up with the 2023 price increase
Sony cited an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user) as a key driver of the service's growth last year, mainly due to price increases in 2023 and the growing migration of subscribers to the PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers. That said, the PS Plus price hike did little to lose subscribers to the service or motivate Extra and Premium members to downgrade to the cheaper Essential tier. Since Sony has stopped updating PS Plus subscriber numbers, it's unclear how many PlayStation users are currently signed up for the service.
PS Plus provides a stable revenue base as revenue on a US dollar basis grew 18% year over year. This is due to an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), which is primarily a result of the move to higher service levels and the impact of price revisions.
We'll see if these results encourage Sony to consider raising PS Plus prices in the future. However, due to the nature of subscription services, further PS Plus price increases may be implemented in the future, regardless of whether the last one helped the service's revenue or not. Fortunately, PS Plus is slowly adding more value to subscribers, especially at the Premium level, with a new PS2 emulator and an improved focus on classic games. The November 2024 PS Plus Extra and Premium additions also include heavy hitters such as GTA 5, Dying Light 2, Like a Dragon: Ishinand others.
PlayStation 5
Sony's PlayStation 5 is part of the ninth generation of consoles and debuted with a launch lineup that included Demon's Souls and Astro's Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although only a digital edition is available for a cheaper price.
