Since Sony began using PS Plus to support the release of PS5 and PS5 games in late 2020, the service has been on a bit of a hotstreak. Several new or big games, like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, have graced the service over the past year. In fact, the PS Plus free games for August 2021 have had the worst reception in over a year. However, despite the uptick in quality and quantity games month over month, it seems Sony has still lost a ton of subscriptions.
Sony published its Q1 financial results here recently, where Sony reported a total number of PS Plus subscribers at 46.3 million. Compared to the two most recent quarters, this means over 1 million PS Plus subscriptions have been lost. According to data collated on Resetera, this is the first time these two quarters have seen such a massive dip and decline in 8 years. Furthermore, there was a decline in monthly active users (those who played games on the PS network) of 10 million year-over-year in June 2021. It doesn't seem to be all bad news, however, or too concerning to Sony.
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In a webcast discussing these figures (and transcribed by the folks at VGC), Sony's chief financial offer Hiroki Totoki says that while numbers compared to last year are down, there is an increase if compared to fiscal year 2019. Totoki also don't believe it's a declining trend but the result of last year's stay-at-home restrictions and the subsequent increase in gaming. After all, during the height of the pandemic last year, a ton of major companies urged folks to stay at home with initiatives, such as Sony's own Play at Home Initiative and more.
On top of that, WHO (the World Health Organization) also encouraged people to play video games as a method of staying home and limiting the spread of the coronavirus. This makes perfect sense, as Totoki himself put it as "the stay-at-home demand was so significant in hindsight, so compared to that period last year as a trend of course [it's declined.]" Nonetheless, while it does add up and Sony isn't too worried about it, Totoki did say the company would "monitor the situation carefully and [it] will deepen the engagement and enhance the platform, therefore during the coming fiscal year we will take actions to support this business."
It's worth mentioning that, despite several supply limitations, the PS5 passed the Switch earlier this year in US sales and has managed to become Sony's fastest-selling console overall, hitting 10 million sales globally since it released. Sony also maintained its commitment to sell 14.8 million PS5 this fiscal year. It remains to be seen how the move away from stay-at-home initiatives and sales of the PS5 impact the future PS Plus numbers, but if there's anything that PS Plus subscribers should also keep in mind, it's that the sheer value of PS Plus alone has more than paid for itself with free games.
PS Plus subscribers get a handful of free games every month.
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