That’s according to Sony’s latest subscriber estimates, which were published on Tuesday as part of its FY2022 Q2 financial results – the first full quarter since it launched the revamped PS Plus.
Despite the revamp, PS Plus subs declined for the third quarter in a row. The total number of subscribers stood at 45.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, down from 47.3 million in the previous quarter.
PlayStation Network monthly active users (MAUs) were also down during the three-month period at 102 million, a decline from 104 million a year earlier and 103 million in the previous quarter. This appears to be Sony’s lowest MAUs figure since it began reporting this data in early 2020.
However, despite the decline in subscribers, Sony’s Network services revenue – which encompasses PS Plus and advertising (but not game purchases or add-on content) – actually increased by 10%, from ¥106 billion to ¥116 billion, which represents its best performance to date for a quarter.
That means Sony’s gaming division is making more money per subscriber than it was before, potentially reflecting the uptake of the more expensive subscription tiers introduced by PS Plus.
Sony FY 2022 Q2:
— Dom (@DomsPlaying) November 1, 2022
Sales of all product categories for PlayStation were either flat or up. Physical Software rose 32%.
Also, Network Services increased 16% to its best ever result.
Indicating higher output per user, since PS Plus & MAUs declined 1.9M & 1M respectively since Q1. pic.twitter.com/tsIh4fE4Ow
Asked about the decline in an earnings call on Tuesday (transcribed by VGC), Sony’s CFO Hiroki Totoki blamed declining third-party game and PlayStation 4 sales and ‘more people going outdoors’.
The exec said he expects subscriber numbers to recover during the company’s next quarter, partly due to the impact of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and God of War Ragnarök.
“There have been a declining number of members of PlayStation Plus,” he said. “However, in the second quarter we renewed our services and there hasn’t been a great momentum as a whole. Also, we didn’t make aggressive promotions during the second quarter.
“Therefore, in the future we are going to have more penetration on PS5 and we are going to have very good titles. In addition, we are able to make better promotions and we think we are able to recover.”
He added in a reply to another investor about the PS Plus figures: “More people are now going outdoors, and we have yet to get out of the negative cycles. PS4 and third-party software sales have also been rather sluggish, and sales of catalogue titles have also been declining.
“Against that, PS5 engagement is quite high, so in Q3 we expect some recovery. We have strong titles from first-party, and we have some seasonal effects. So, in Q3 we can see some recovery from the downturn trend – that’s our expectation.”
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Related Forum: PlayStation Forum
Source: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-plus-has-lots-nearly-2-million-subscribers-since-its-revamp/
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