Key points
- Sony reveals that PS Plus earnings have increased over the last year.
- PS Plus earnings rose 18% year-over-year despite negative sentiment regarding the service's sharp price increase in 2023.
- The growth comes from higher revenue per PS Plus subscriber thanks to price increases and an increasing shift to the Extra and Premium tiers of the service.
Sony's latest earnings report proves it PlayStation Plus it is generating more money than ever. Even though PS Plus suffered a substantial price increase last year, the subscription service's profit margins didn't take the hit as some might have expected.
In 2022, Sony introduced a major revamp to 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 saves, online gaming, and more, working essentially exactly the same as its previous service. The pricier PS Plus Extra tier offers a Netflix-style library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, while the flagship Premium tier further adds cloud streaming for PS5 and PS3 and emulated classics from the PS1, PS2 and PSP generations.
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In August 2023, Sony announced a hefty 35% price increase for all PS Plus tiers. Many subscribers criticized the price increase due to a selection of extremely disappointing PS Plus additions at the time, such as Row of saints AND Generation Zeroas well as no new benefits for the service. Despite the complaints, Sony's recent second quarter earnings report for fiscal 2025 revealed this PS Plus earnings increased 18% year over year. The PS Plus price increase went into effect on September 6, 2023, and the report covers data through September 30, 2024.
PS Plus subscribers have largely complied with the 2023 price increase
Sony cited an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), primarily due to 2023 price increases and the growing migration of subscribers to the Extra and Premium tiers of PS Plus, as a key factor behind the service's growth in the last year. This means that the PS Plus price increase has done little to lose subscribers to the service or motivate Extra and Premium members to upgrade to the cheaper Essential tier. Since Sony has stopped updating PS Plus membership numbers, it's unclear how many PlayStation users are currently subscribed to the service.
PS Plus provides a stable base of earnings as sales on a US dollar basis increased 18% year over year. This is due to an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user) resulting primarily from the move to higher service levels and the impact of price revisions.
It remains to be seen whether these results will encourage Sony to consider future price increases for PS Plus. Given the nature of subscription services, however, further PS Plus price increases may be implemented in the future, regardless of whether the latest whether or not it helped the service's earnings. Thankfully, PS Plus is slowly adding more value for subscribers, especially at the Premium tier, through the new PS2 emulator and a greater focus on classic games. The November 2024 PS Plus Extra and Premium additions also include big hits like GTA5, 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 ships with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital-only edition is also available for a cheaper price.
