PlayStation Plus is growing faster than ever before, a senior Sony official said in a rare update. The service’s profitability is also looking plenty strong, especially with most PS Plus users preferring its higher tiers.
June 29 will mark the 15th anniversary of Sony launching PS Plus. The original service cost $50 per year and included free monthly games for the PS3 and PSP, automatic PS3 updates—a feature later consoles did not lock behind a subscription—exclusive discounts, beta access, and cloud saves, among other perks. Notably, PlayStation Plus was not required for online multiplayer on the PS3, a policy that changed with subsequent consoles.
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15 years following its original launch, PS Plus is not only going strong but growing faster than ever. That’s according to PlayStation VP and Global Head of Subscriptions Nick Maguire, who reflected on the service’s current performance in a recent interview with Game File‘s Stephen Totilo. In an encouraging sign for profitability, Sony is seeing the strongest user engagement and subscriber growth in its most expensive tier, the $160-per-year Premium plan, which grew 18% over the last 12 months, as per the same source. Subscriptions are also a reliable indicator of hardware spending, with over 81% of current PS Plus subscribers owning Sony’s current-gen console, the PS5, up 11 points year-over-year.
PlayStation Plus Three-Way Tier Split Surpassed Sony’s Expectations
The move to split PS Plus into three tiers—originally implemented in 2022—surpassed Sony’s expectations, Maguire said. Elaborating on this point, the industry veteran explained that introducing multiple tiers of the service allowed the company to fine-tune its subscription offerings, consequently reaching new audiences. At the time, the tiers were priced at $60 (Essential), $100 (Extra), and $120 (Premium) per year. A year later, Sony raised the U.S. prices to $80, $135, and $160, respectively.
Sony Wants To Keep Investing in PS Plus
Earlier in June 2025, SIE CEO Hideaki Nishino told investors the price hikes did not have a material impact on subscriber growth. The executive cited the growing value proposition of PS Plus as the chief reason for the adjustment, while simultaneously not ruling out another PS Plus price hike. Maguire declined to comment on the possibility of the service’s price increasing in the foreseeable future. “I think we just want to invest in Plus,” the executive told Game File when asked to chime in on Nishino’s recent remarks.
Sony still isn’t saying exactly how many people are subscribed to PS Plus, instead emphasizing alternative performance metrics. For example, Maguire noted that playtime for first- and third-party games over the past 12 months surpassed 2 billion hours. As of now, nearly 40% of subscribers are on the Extra or Premium tiers, leaving just over 60% of users with an Essential membership. Looking ahead, Sony plans to maintain its strategy of offering recent—but not brand-new—titles through PS Plus. Day-one releases à la what Xbox Game Pass is doing aren’t on the agenda, presumably because those are still selling well to the point of Sony not wanting to cannibalize their sales with PS Plus.