Sony's PS4 gets some good news that's surprisingly bad for Microsoft's Xbox One (Pic: PSNOW)
Xbox and Microsoft have been pushing the Xbox Games Pass pretty hard recently – we saw the company double down on its efforts to promote the service with a massive focus on Games Pass at the X018 conference in early November.
There, the company announced a promotion where players can subscribe to the 200+ games roster for as little as £1 per month to start, as an intro to the game.
Microsoft also announced many more titles for Xbox Games Pass, and added committed to adding all new first party exclusives to the service, too.
But, despite the complete lack of fanfare for its own subscription model, Sony seems to be outgunning Microsoft yet again with its own on-demand gaming service, PlayStation Now.
And with Sony recently allowing players to download the games on PlayStation Now (where previously you could only stream them) it's possible that the subscription service could continue to go from strength to strength in 2019.
The report comes from digital video game sales tracker SuperData who notes that Sony has grabbed the lion's share of gaming subscription services in the third quarter of 2018.
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SuperData provided a breakdown that notes what players are spending money on when it comes to subscription services.
Despite the massive promotion and support from Microsoft, Xbox Game Pass only manages to occupy 15% of the market share, with Sony and PlayStation Now taking up a massive 52% of the sales.
That's no small margin between the two companies, and can probably be attributed to the admittedly huge gulf of sales between PS4 consoles and Xbox One consoles over the whole generation so far.
Though Sony must be celebrating its vice-like grip on the games-on-demand market, it's still worth noting that all subscription services only account for about 6% of total gaming revenue.
SuperData also had some more interesting information to share regarding the overall spending habits of subscription users.
The most telling bit of data from the report discovered that players who pay for subscriptions end up spending 45 more on games than people who buy them traditionally.
Those using subscription services are apparently also twice as likely to spend money on cosmetics, season passes, and in-game purchases.
“The game subscription market heated up immensely in 2018 as game makers sought sources of consistent, recurring revenue," states SuperData analyst Carter Rogers.
"To increase the appeal of their own subscription offerings, publishers are now offering brand-new titles to paying members.”
It certainly seems to be setting a precedent for developers and publishers as we move forward into the next console generation.
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