Over 3.8 Million PS5 Owners Are PlayStation Plus Members

It may come as a complete surprise as to just how many PlayStation 5 players are actively paying for PlayStation Plus subscription services.

It may come as a complete surprise as to just how many PlayStation 5 players are actively paying for PlayStation Plus subscription services at launch.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed in an earnings report for the third quarter ended of the 2020 financial year that 87 percent of all PS5 users were PlayStation Plus subscribers by the end of December 2020.

That comes to around 3.8 million PS5 users actively paying for the PlayStation Plus subscription service when accounting for 4.5 million PS5 consoles sold between November and December 2020, a figure which Sony has labelled to be on “an extremely high level.”

PlayStation Plus now has 47.4 million members worldwide, which saw an increase of 1.5 million between October and December 2020, and an increase of 9.1 million over the past fiscal year. It however cannot be determined as to just how many of those 3.8 million PS5 subscribers became active members for the first time.

The transition from PS4 to PS5 likely means that many players were already paying for the service. It hence becomes pretty difficult to pinpoint how many PlayStation Plus members the launch of PS5 particularly added.

“Continuing with our strategy of enhancing user engagement, we intend to take steps to further enhance the appeal of our network services offerings,” said Sony.

Something else of interest is that the total gameplay time recorded of PlayStation users during December 2020 was around 30 percent higher than the same month of the previous fiscal year. That was presumably across both PS4 and PS5 and in turn reflects how COVID-19 has helped boost video games due to stay-at-home policies.

PlayStation Plus offers many incentives such as exclusive discounts on PlayStation Store, additional cloud storage for save files, bonus in-game items, and two free games to download every month. However, the biggest advantage of the service is in allowing players access to online multiplayer gaming.

Saqib is a managing editor at segmentnext.com who has halted regime changes, curbed demonic invasions, and averted at least one cosmic omnicide from the confines of his gaming chair. When not whipping his writers into ...