PSN passes 94 million active users

Come along, because this is one of those round-number news items that make any gamer’s heart curious: in May 2019, Sony presented its investors with a report on the games division, and the data showed the size of the PlayStation 4 generation’s success.

There were two numbers, and very nice ones. The PlayStation 4 had reached 96.8 million units sold worldwide, and the PlayStation Network totaled more than 94 million active users. Look at that: almost one active user for every console sold. Sony, however, did not separate how many of those accounts were free and how many paid for PlayStation Plus, so doubt remained about the exact size of the subscriber base.

To understand the weight of this mark, it is worth remembering the PSN’s path. The service was born in November 2006, together with the PlayStation 3, and only in June 2010 got the optional PlayStation Plus subscription. In April 2011, a security breach took the network offline temporarily and affected 77 million registered accounts, one of the hardest moments in the brand’s history. Eight years later, the network had more active users than that total number of accounts at the time.

The data came from Sony’s investor presentation, which you can check here, in English.

What came next

The PS4 kept selling very well: by October 2019 it had passed 102.8 million units and become the second best-selling console in history, behind only the PlayStation 2. The PSN went through the arrival of the PlayStation 5 in November 2020, and PlayStation Plus was reorganized in June 2022, when the old PlayStation Now streaming service became part of the PlayStation Plus Premium plan. What a lovely path to follow, from a tiny network to one of the biggest online gaming services.

Source: Sony (via GamingBolt).