PS5 beats PS4 in monthly players for the first time
Sony Interactive Entertainment had its yearly earnings meeting where it shared major growth milestone for the PlayStation 5. For the first time since its launch in 2020, the PS5 has seen more monthly players than the PS4. Sony believes these players are highly engaged and are spending more on the games and services. The combined monthly active player count has also increased significantly compared to last year.
As part of the presentation, Hideaki Nishino (President and CEO), Hermen Hulst (CEO, Studio Business Group), and Lynn Azar (SVP, Finance and Corporate Development) shared slides showing healthy growth and console milestones. As of March 31, 2025, there were 124 million monthly active users on the PS5 and the PS4 combined, a significant growth over last years 97 million. Furthermore, the PS5 took the lead in monthly active users for the first time since launch, beating the PS4.
While Sony did not share the exact numbers for PS5 monthly active users, the graphic showed the newer console took majority of the share. The Life-to-Date spend per console was also in favour of the PS5 with a 21% growth in content, a 63% growth in services, and a 27% growth in peripherals compared to the PS4.
The CEO also commented on PlayStation Plus pricing and stated that seeing as how the number of Premium and Extra tier subscribers has grown to 38% despite the previous price increases, the company will continue to add more value and adjust pricing to maximise profitability.
Additioanlly, it looks like people were more engaged with PlayStation in FY24 than they were in 2023 (FY22) or 2024 (FY23) as the annual gameplay hours reached 51 billion, a 14% growth from FY22.
