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As of March 2023, Sony's PlayStation Plus video gaming subscription service had over 47.4 million subscribers 532431, 14.1 million of which were on the higher-priced Extra or Premium tiers. PlayStation Plus is a paid gaming subscription service that provides users with access to premium features at different pricing levels.

PlayStation subscription services - change with the times

Originally launched in 2010, PlayStation Plus has long since been a mainstay of the online gaming experience as it was a must-have to access online multiplayer gaming on PlayStation. Other features include exclusive discounts on the PlayStation Store, as well as free monthly games available for download. Up until mid-2022, players could also subscribe to a separate cloud gaming service, PlayStation Now, in order to access a library of PlayStation games that could either be streamed or downloaded to PC or PS consoles.

In June 2022, Sony combined its PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now gaming services, and the revamped PlayStation Plus service now features a three-tier subscription model. The existing service became PlayStation Plus Essential, with higher-priced tiers, PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium, adding access to downloadable and streamable gaming titles, which were formerly available under PlayStation Now. These changes were not universally well received at launch, as the PS Plus subscriber count dipped to its lowest figure since September 2020 before recovering at the beginning of 2023.

Xbox Game Pass - the competition is bulking up

Sony’s PlayStation Plus service competes directly with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, which currently has 25 million global subscribers. Additionally, Game Pass is also available for PC, and just in April 2023 expanded its user base to 40 new countries. With the Game Pass lacking in subscriber numbers, it makes up with its game catalogue, which Microsoft has been aggressively expanding in recent years. There are currently over 400 games available on Xbox Game Pass, which is a much smaller amount than the approximately 700 games on PS Plus at the highest tier. However, Microsoft has been acquiring gaming studios left and right to remedy this, and the company’s 69 billion U.S. dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard is a testament to this fact. However, platform exclusivity of multi-platform games is an increasing concern among gaming audiences worldwide, who have been closely following these industry developments.