PlayStation Now's subscriber count doubled in one year
It’s still way behind Xbox Game Pass, though.
Sony’s CEO and president Kenichiro Yoshida hosted the company’s corporate strategy meeting today, which included updates on PlayStation products and services. One impressive figure shows that subscriptions to PlayStation Now -- the company’s cloud gaming service -- more than doubled between March 2019 and March 2020. Last year, about a million gamers were active PlayStation Now users, and this year, that number is up to 2.2 million.
That increased success could be attributed to the fact that in October 2018, Sony enabled the option for subscribers to download games, rather than stream them, resulting in more stable performance. The company also cut the subscription price in half in October 2019.
While these results are impressive, PlayStation Now has far fewer subscribers than Microsoft’s similar Xbox Game Pass, which has over 10 million users. This disparity could come down to any number of factors, from marketing efforts to the games included in each service’s library.
PlayStation Now could be worth checking out for PS4 owners -- $5 a month unlocks access to hundreds of games if you sign up for a year. (The price doubles if you pay month-to-month.) It may also be a good choice for PC gamers, since they can play PS4 exclusives like Bloodborne without having to purchase a PlayStation 4. We’ll have to wait and see if the launch of the PS5 has an effect on PlayStation Now subscriber numbers.
