Key insights
- Sony announces that PS Plus revenue has increased over the past year.
- PS Plus profits rose 18% year-on-year, despite negative sentiment surrounding the service's big price increase in 2023.
- The growth comes from higher revenue per PS Plus subscriber thanks to the price increase and an increasing shift to the service's Extra and Premium tiers.
This is what Sony's latest earnings report shows PlayStation Plus generates more money than ever before. Although PS Plus saw a significant price increase last year, the subscription service's profit margins haven't taken a hit as some might have expected.
Back in 2022, Sony introduced 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 gaming and more, and works basically the same as the service before it. The more expensive PS Plus Extra tier offers a Netflix-like library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, and the flagship Premium tier also offers PS5 and PS3 cloud streaming, as well as emulated PS1, PS2 classics – and PSP generations.
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In August 2023, Sony announced a whopping 35% price increase for all PS Plus tiers. Many subscribers criticized the price increase due to a selection of then extremely disappointing PS Plus additions, such as: Saints Row And Generation zeroand no new benefits for the service. Despite the complaints, Sony's latest fiscal 2025 second quarter earnings report revealed this PS Plus revenue increased 18% year over year. The PS Plus price increase took effect on September 6, 2023 and the report covers data up to September 30, 2024.
PS Plus subscribers have largely complied with the 2023 price increase
Sony cited an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user) as the main driver of the service's growth last year, largely due to the price increase in 2023 and an increasing migration of subscribers to the Extra and Premium tiers of PS Plus . This means that the PS Plus price increase has done little to attract 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 is unclear how many PlayStation users are currently subscribed to the service.
PS Plus provides a stable earnings base as revenue increased 18% year-over-year in US dollar terms. This is due to an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), primarily due to a shift to higher service tiers and the impact of pricing changes.
It remains to be seen whether these results encourage Sony to consider future PS Plus price increases. However, given the nature of subscription services, further PS Plus price increases could be implemented in the future, regardless of whether the latest move positively impacted the service's bottom line or not. Fortunately, PS Plus has slowly added value to subscribers, especially at the premium tier, with the new PS2 emulator and a greater focus on classic games. The November 2024 PS Plus Extra and Premium additions also feature heavyweights like GTA 5, Dying Light 2, Like a Dragon: Ishinand more.
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 a digital-only version is also available at a cheaper price.
