How did January’s PlayStation Plus games do?
Today, we're looking at our PS Plus player numbers for January’s monthly games and the three major additions to the Game Catalog. Also, some exciting new news!
Each month, PlayStation Plus provides Essential-tier members (and above) with a selection of games to claim for a limited time. In January, those were Need for Speed Unbound, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, and Core Keeper. These were available for users to add to their libraries between January 7 and February 4.
Extra and Premium subscribers also got new Game Catalog additions on January 20. The standouts were Resident Evil Village, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. Let’s see how many PlayStation Plus subscribers used their subscriptions to play these games for the first time.
NFS Unbound gets a big boost
As per our estimates, 1.6M PS Plus subscribers have played Need for Speed Unbound using their subscription. As expected, the audience was most concentrated in North America and Western Europe – a testament to NFS’ enduring legacy in those regions.
This was actually Unbound’s second lap on the service, having previously been part of the higher Extra tier between Feb 22 2024, and Aug 21 2024. To date, 4.3M players have accessed Unbound via PS Plus across all tiers, accounting for over half of its total player base on PlayStation.
You can see the impact of each PS Plus addition on the player base below in the Alinea Platform screenshot:
Epic Mickey and Core Keeper also attracted players, and the claim-and-wait effect is strong
Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, a remake of a licensed platformer from iconic game maker Warren Spector, has conjured 1.4M new players via PlayStation Plus so far – that’s over 12X its copies sold. Platformer fans were in.
Around 30% of the audience previously played Crash Bandicoot 4, while 20% played Astro Bot, significantly higher crossover than the service average. Families also took advantage, with 9% having previously played My Friend Peppa Pig (GOTY!)
Core Keeper, a survival sandbox game, amassed over half-a-million new players via its PS Plus inclusion. Japan was its #2 audience on the service. Core Keeper has done well in Japan generally, helped by a dedicated physical release and high-quality localisation.
The timing of Core Keeper’s inclusion was a strategic marketing force multiplier for the Switch 2 launch on Jan 28, as well as the major Void & Voltage content update.
One quirk of the monthly games is that players can claim titles during the inclusion window and download/play them at a later date (if you’re a subscriber, always do this - you never know!). Our data shows that many players have this habit:
Roughly 130K subscribers played NFS Unbound after the February 4 cutoff, while 120K did the same for Epic Mickey and 45K did for Core Keeper.
The shares here are consistent, with 9-9.5% of the PS Plus audience claimed the games but not actually booting them up until the ‘‘claim’’ window closed. Even “free” games have to wait their turn in the backlog.
We expect this number to creep up even further as time goes on. Hit subscribe below, and we’ll check back in a later edition.
Now onto the Game Catalog games added on January 20.
Loads of players have already accessed January’s new Game Catalog additions
January’s headline Games Catalog titles also enjoyed plenty of engagement:
Resident Evil Village has netted 852K players since joining the Game Catalog on January 22. This was a shrewd move ahead of the launch of Resident Evil Requiem on Feb 27. Keeping the previous installment fresh in the minds of over 850K subscribers is a clear move to prime the audience for the sequel. Keep your eyes peeled for our Requiem estimates in early March, too!
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game got 414K new PS Plus players, as per our estimates. Like the other games in the franchise, it tasks players with driving all-terrain vehicles through treacherous landscapes, but it’s focused more on scientific research than hauling cargo around. Over two-thirds of this audience had never played the original MudRunner or its sequel, SnowRunner. This inclusion has introduced the franchise to a new segment of players.
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth brought in 262K players. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, a spinoff of Infinite Wealth that takes place six months after, has had a deep discount (-70% to $18) since February 4, while Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties launched last week. Infinite Wealth’s inclusion could be part of a funnel to these. But Infinite Wealth is a HUGE game (it took me 100 hours to get through), so it’s more likely just a brand-building exercise.
Many third-party games stay in the Catalog for about 6-12 months, but it can be lower or higher depending on their agreement with PlayStation. We’ll be checking back in on the performance of these games and others in upcoming newsletters. If you want those numbers in your inbox, hit subscribe below.
To summarise, January’s data signals that big publishers are reaping benefits from the PlayStation Plus ecosystem. Sony’s strategy of treating its Game Catalog as a secondary value-add has been the smarter long-term bet versus cannibalising first-party day-one/early sales or overpaying for massive third-party launches.
On game subscription cannibalisation
The Insomniac leak showed that Horizon Forbidden West’s sales cratered once it was added to PlayStation Plus Extra a little less than a year after launch. The monthly copies-sold deltas on our platform’s Forbidden West game page support this:
Stagnating growth in the day-one-inclusion model was a major driver in the shift in Xbox’s strategy toward becoming a third-party publisher.
Game content subscriptions are not the be-all-end-all for the industry’s future health, clearly, but third parties are still utilising PS Plus and Game Pass to generate a little extra guaranteed revenue (not much these days, to be fair), boost title popularity, and extend a game’s lifecycle.
Now, some company news we’re very excited about.
New Alinea Analytics hire – Tobias Sjögren
We’re delighted to announce that Tobias Sjögren has joined the Alinea Analytics leadership team as our Head of Business Development!
Tobias is a true industry veteran whose career spans three decades and nearly every facet of the business. I’m already learning lots from Tobias’s unique perspectives, and – as subscribers to this newsletter – you will, too.
Tobias is perhaps best known for his recent tenure as CEO of Starbreeze Entertainment, but his resume also includes leadership roles at Paradox Interactive, DICE, and the international agency DDM. Notably, he helmed DICE’s Stockholm studio during the era-defining launch of the first Battlefield.
Tobias has also served as a board member at Ztorm AB, Starbreeze AB (public), Smart Eye AB (public), and the Swedish Game Industry Association. He has also held other executive positions, including as the CEO of Fox in a Box, VP of Mobile Games at Stardoll, and CEO of White Wolf Entertainment.
At Alinea, Tobias will leverage his deep institutional knowledge to accelerate our growth trajectory and give our clients dedicated, executive-grade support that only a seasoned industry leader can offer. Catch our interview with Tobias here.
As you can tell, we’re excited to have Tobias on board as we continue to redefine market intelligence for the gaming world! The two of us will be heading to GDC next month, so shoot us a DM if you want to meet up.
Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free?
We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies.
Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up.
The last word
Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover.
[Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]