Sony loses close to 2 million PlayStation (PS) Plus subscribers since the revamped service launched back in June. Despite the revamp, PS Plus subs declined for the third quarter in a row.
From June 30 to September 30, Sony’s multi-tiered PS Plus membership service saw a fall in active users down by 4%. The number of subscribers dropped from 47.3 million to 45.4 million.
Not only that, PlayStation Network’s user base shrank by a million in the most recent quarter, falling to 102 million.
Despite a decline in digital sales, Sony’s PlayStation 5 hardware performed admirably. Over 25 million devices had sold, Sony says, and they manufactured over 6.5 million additional PS5s between July 1 and September 30.
In March, Sony stated that it will be updating its PlayStation Plus service to be similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass via a subscription model; however, the three new levels didn’t debut in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand until June.
According to a call by Video Games Chronicle (VCG) to Sony’s CFO Hiroki Totoki, he predicts that subscriptions will increase in the coming quarter, thanks in part to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and God of War Ragnarök.
In the call, Hiroki said “There have been a declining number of members of PlayStation Plus.”
“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.”
Sony’s PS Plus revamps added an Extra and Deluxe tiers on top of the already existing Essential tier. The new tiers brings more content and games for PS Plus subscribers.