PS Plus Subscription Growth Sony PS5 PlayStation 1
Image: Push Square

A chunk of the discourse this generation has revolved around subscriptions, and Sony’s reluctance to offer its first-party releases day one with PS Plus. Many felt that the PS5 would begin to fall behind its rivals due to a perceived lack of value compared to competing services like Xbox Game Pass, but in reality the whole segment is starting to flatten out – at least in the USA.

According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, “subscription spend growth is slowing”. This obviously doesn’t mean that the growth has completely stopped, but it does suggest that unless something dramatic changes, it is beginning to level off. Sony has, from the start, insisted that PS Plus is a supplementary revenue stream to its traditional business model, which is selling games full-price at both retail and through its digital storefront.

PS Plus has, over the past few years, topped out at about 50 million subscribers – although the platform holder has successfully increased the revenue of the service per member by introducing new, higher value tiers in PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium. It would appear, though, unless trends change dramatically over the coming months, subscriptions may not be the future of the industry after all. That makes sense to us, as video games are not as passive as television and music, where it’s easier to consume a large amount of content in a shorter span of time.

[source twitter.com]