PlayStation Plus Is Officially Losing the Battle To Game Pass
The war for streaming supremacy is just on the precipice of getting a bit fiery. The Xbox Game Pass innovated on what the gaming landscape can be for consumers, and it didn’t take long for PlayStation to take notice. What was once a nice bonus for Xbox players has become a point of contention across the gaming world, and competition has flared up everywhere.
Especially at PSHQ, where the introduction of PlayStation Plus has offered PS users a chance to work through monthly-released games, next-gen titles included, and to play online with friends and strangers alike. But, it’s, uh… not working as intended.
PlayStation Plus Loses A Million Subscribers
Click to enlargeSony’s latest financial report, as you can imagine, was pretty solid overall. The company’s still making bank off the back of the staggered release of PlayStation 5 consoles, and game sales are still working nicely - but one segment of the company’s output isn’t quite performing as well.
PlayStation Plus has supposedly shed a monstrous amount of subscribers in the gap between Q4 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021, losing more than a whopping one million subscribers in the short span of time. Oof.
It’s not just PlayStation Plus in the pits either, as the PlayStation Network as a whole has experienced a loss of nearly five million users, dropping from 109 million active users to 104.
But, PlayStation isn’t too alarmed.
PlayStation Respond To PS Plus’ Losses
Click to enlargeAddressing the big dip in a recent Q&A, Sony doesn’t seem particularly phased by the service’s losses, and in fact, suggested that they should have seen it coming. ”Last year, the stay-at-home demand was such a significant demand in hindsight”, a spokesperson has said. “Compared to FY19 there is an increase, so we will monitor the situation carefully [...] and make efforts to enhance and upgrade the platform to support this business.”
PlayStation aren’t worried, but who knows, this could spell the start of a concerning decline for the company. Maybe Xbox has suffered a similar hit, but we won’t know until there’s some kind of announcement. Either way, we hope this is something PlayStation recover from - but chances are they’ll be just fine.