“Subscribers are increasingly opting for our Premium and Extra tiers, which now account for around 38% of total subscribers,” said SIE president and CEO Hideaki Nishino.

In FY22, the percentage of PS Plus subscribers on Premium and Extra were 17% and 13%, respectively. By FY24, those figures had increased to 22% and 16%, combining for that 38% total. Sony highlights that this growth occurred even after a global price hike in September 2023, where annual prices rose by up to 35% in certain regions — yet subscriptions still climbed.

The most talked-about subscription service is Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s offering of both archived and day-one titles available for a $20 monthly fee. However, with millions of PlayStation consoles already in households, PS Plus serves as a major revenue source for Sony, even though it doesn’t offer the same variety as Game Pass.

The market has evolved to the point where subscribing to these services is practically mandatory if you want to play modern console games — unlike PC, where your only recurring cost is internet access. This allows companies to raise prices without real pushback, while gradually nudging users into more expensive plans. Sony is clearly happy with the direction and their ability to keep raising fees:

“The PlayStation Plus service offers great value for our players, and we will continue to add more value and adjust our pricing strategy in a dynamic way to maximize profitability.”

If you interpret “adjust our pricing strategy in a dynamic way to maximize profitability” as anything other than “expect prices to keep rising,” I’ve got a microtransaction-priced bridge I’d like to sell you.

Console manufacturers are increasingly turning to online services as their main profit center, rather than hardware sales which typically have slimmer margins. This shift is more pronounced for Xbox than PlayStation, especially given recent low Xbox hardware sales numbers, but PS Plus remains a vital asset for Sony as well. And they know full well that gamers don’t really have an alternative when so many titles are tied to online platforms.

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