Number of PlayStation Plus subscribers doubles to reach 20.8m

The number of subscribers to Sony’s PlayStation Plus online mode has nearly doubled in the last year.

In January 2015, the company boasted of 10.9m paid users on the service; that figure has now risen to 20.8m, according to a presentation by Sony Interactive Entertainment chief Andrew House at Sony’s investor day.

By comparison, Microsoft reports 48m users on its equivalent Xbox Live service. It’s worth pointing out that Xbox Live has both paid – Gold – users and free members. PlayStation Plus, previously an opt-in service for discounts and deals like Instant Game Collection – became compulsory for online play since the PS4 launch. One year after the PlayStation 4 was released, PS Plus subscriptions were just 7.9m.

Also revealed in this presentation was that sales on its network business – in other words, digital content – have increased 51 per cent between fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year 2015.

House also outlined its plans for future growth. The exec says that part of this is expanding PlayStation VR to beyond gaming – a sentiment often expressed for VR’s move into the mainstream.