Sony: 20 Million PSN Users, 4 Million Home Users Posted by XanTium | 26-2-2009 20:00 EST

From spong.com: [QUOTE] Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (SCEI) has released user numbers for its free-to-join PlayStation Network. "...the cumulative number of registered accounts on PlayStation Network worldwide has exceeded 20 million as of February 20, 2009", it says. This compares to the 17 million declared by Microsoft for its Xbox Live service. Apparently 56% of Xbox Live users - as of February last year - paid for the service . We are also provided with some figures regarding content. This includes the user figures for Home - not in this case called Home Beta, we note. "PlayStation Home launched its service in December 2008 and in less than 2 months, the number of users has exceeded 4 million", is the detail. [/QUOTE] Full Story: spong.com

This is great news for the Sony camp. Apparently there is talk of a price cut soon too.

source:gamesindustry.biz article

This only registered accounts.
We have 4 accounts on ours, so the figures are a little misleading.

I just updated my PSP to the newest firmware yesterday and it has the PSN. Do those count?

and about half of them are from PS2. and hell, even MY PS2 has a profile..doesn't mean I use it. Hell my PS2 hasn't been on in over 2 years. Xbox only launches 360 info. so I'd like to see how many actual PS3 owners actually have and use the service.

I've sold my PS3 and when we had it there were two accounts created. Do those count?

Like I said, I'd like to see actual numbers of people that use the service at least once a year. Xbox has actually released those numbers. 17 million live accounts(this means nothing, I have 4. It's the 56% that actually pay for it that shows proof. that is 9.25 million people pay for the service, so they actually use the service regularly. the PSN account numbers are BS cause I bet they count the account that I haven't touched in 3 years it's just fluff to make them look like they are doing well. Let's wait and see how the PS3 sells this week with KZ2, this will be hopefully be a huge week for them.

Uto

What does that have to do with the number of live accounts???
I doubt sales will jump any time soon as nobody has any money.

If the 360 has sold 28M worldwide how can 9.25M be 56percent??

How misleading exactly? My PS3 has three account, but two of them are for distinct users which seems to be consistent with what they're trying to say. The other is a Japanese account used to access their Store, so that's one that would skew the results.

PSN accounts are not tied to any console. You can sign up for an account through a PS3, PSP, or PC, but it's all just a PSN account. I don't even think they distinguish between active accounts, though. And as far as I know, PS2 did not even use PSN so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

It's 56% of the 17 million LIVE accounts that are Gold (so 44% are Silver). I'm not sure about his assumption that they all use the service regularly, though.

I just resumed using my XBL service (console was stolen, so I was gameless for a while). Had 2 PSN accounts (one US, one Jap), so I guess I'm a schitzo result for them

Either way, both the numbers are inflated. Facter in that the 360's installed base is inflated due to RRoD as well, so the number of Live accounts is probably a bit closer to the number of active 360's, as a result. Considering it's free to have a PSN account, I don't know why everyone with an internet connection any anything Sony doesn't already have one (I had one for years).

I think the biggest message to get from this is that people would rather pay for a service than recieve it for free. Maybe paying for it makes it seem like it's [by definition], better (then again, with their significantly larger installed base, many people just want to play their games online, and pay because they have to).