As part of Sony's Investor Relations Day today, June 29, the Japanese company confirmed there were 20.8 million PlayStation Plus subscribers for its latest financial year.
That figure pertains to subscribers across all PlayStation devices, including consoles such as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. Here is the slide from Sony's presentation, in which the company also mentions "Games as a service" as being a revenue opportunity.
PlayStation Plus is required for online multiplayer on PS4. Additionally, some of the benefits include discounts on games and movies, as well as free games every month. Memberships are available for one month ($10), three months ($18) or 12 months ($50).
In comparison, by Microsoft's latest count, there are 48 million "active" Xbox Live members, though this counts free and paid accounts. Microsoft has not announced how many Xbox Live Gold members it has.
Another slide (below) mentions that Sony's aim is to "retain and expand" the number of "engaged" PlayStation users, and also increase average revenue per paying user.
"I always hesitate to be drawn into discussions on someone else's strategy," he said. "I'm more than happy to talk about our own strategy... Yes, there was a big emphasis from the folks at Microsoft on Xbox and PC cross-play. It remains to be seen whether there is latent large consumer demand for that."