PlayStation Now Sony 1

PlayStation Now is generally given short shrift in gaming circles, with more attention placed on Microsoft’s heavily promoted Xbox Game Pass service. However, it seems Sony’s streaming and download subscription has been quietly bringing home the bacon, as new research from SuperData makes it the market leader by some margin – excluding services like PlayStation Plus.

According to a new report, PS Now commanded 52 per cent of the gaming subscription market in the quarter ending 30th September, which means that downloads were only implemented at the very tail end of this analysis. Right now, for around $19.99 a month, you can stream almost 700 PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games, as well as download many of the latter titles.

PS Now has obviously been around a lot longer than comparable services, and it also costs more, which will boost its standing in terms of revenue share – but could also turn consumers away. All in all it’s quite a surprising piece of research, although it is extrapolated from a sample and shouldn’t be considered hard fact.

It’s also worth pointing out that the top three gaming subscriptions counted for just 6 per cent of overall PC and console revenue during the tracked period, so none of these services appear to be particularly popular just yet. There’s definitely something for Sony to work with here, though, and with the likes of Google and Microsoft about to join the streaming race, it needs to make its headstart count.

[source superdataresearch.com]