Sony: 80% of PS3 owners 'active' on PSN

by Randy Nelson { Nov 18th 2008 at 3:15PM }

Over at the PlayStation Blog, PS3 hardware marketing boss John Koller is celebrating the system's second birthday with a rundown of major accomplishments in its life to date. The one that immediately caught our eye: according to Sony, there are 14 million active PSN accounts, with roughly 17M PS3 consoles sold to date worldwide. That's about 80% of PS3 owners having PSN accounts.

Okay, now for the semantics of "active accounts." Koller provides no qualifications for what makes an "active" account, so the glass-half-empty folks could read this as meaning 80% of PS3 owners have created a PSN account, but many don't actively use that account. The optimistic lot will say 80% of all PS3 owners are online playing Resistance 2 right now. We're of the "the glass is at 50% of its total capacity" set, so we'll say it's somewhere in-between.

Tags: playstation, playstation-3, playstation-network, ps3, psn

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Jeffuiuc @ Nov 18th 2008 3:21PM

you also have to take into account the people (like me) who have 2 PS3s and only one PSN account. This makes the numbers look even better for sony.

rudemir @ Nov 18th 2008 3:25PM

And what about the people who have three different accounts and just 1 ps3.

jayeffaar @ Nov 18th 2008 3:25PM

Of course, the reverse situation is also true (and possibly happens more often): some households will have one PS3 and multiple accounts on it.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 3:28PM

more people will have only 1 ps3 in the house with multiple accounts, than people that have multiple ps3's in their home.

and PSN is free everybody who owns a ps3 should have a PSN account.
that doesnt mean 80% of ps3 owners are actually gaming online or using the features.

thats really a stat that means nothing.

NukeAssault @ Nov 18th 2008 3:31PM

I have 3 accounts... =\

Lars @ Nov 18th 2008 3:37PM

I've got 2 accounts (because I wanted to change my name). Also, my wife has an account. So that's 3 accounts, 1 PS3.

Vidikron @ Nov 18th 2008 3:38PM

Yeah, I have multiple PSN accounts for the different regions as well. So that likely skews that 80%... because even today 80% being online seems too high.

That's holds true for the 360 too if MS includes their Silver accounts. I have one gold and several silvers... all of which go online from time to time.

Ayman @ Nov 18th 2008 3:47PM

Okay i have a couple of PSN accounts only because of the different region limitations of access.

BUT the main question here and no one bothered to ask is WHY DO YOU HAVE 2 PS3s?

Albanian_Killa @ Nov 18th 2008 3:47PM

Multiple accounts are not considered "active" accounts. You hardly use them. I have 4, I hardly ever use them, so I don't think Sony considers those "active" accounts. They surely have a system set up to give them a much clearer figure.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 3:49PM

vidikron-
this is another sony false comment with many holes.

by "active" they mean the total number of PSN accounts that have signed up and are still open.

the comment has nothing to do with 80% of ps3 owners going online.

thats what they want us to think.. lol.

more people are playing gears 2 online than the combined online players for r2, LBP, and socom on any given day.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 3:52PM

ayman- anybody that has 2 ps3's better have at least 1 360, or any comment they make is worthless fanboy banter.

killa- keep dreaming and trying to define what sony is calling 'active'... lol.
active means not closed and open. it doesnt mean you go online everyday... lol..

required @ Nov 18th 2008 3:56PM

My guess is that it's higher than 80% as it's difficult to stay logged out.

Also, you can have multiple, but you can only actively use one account at a time.

cc123 @ Nov 18th 2008 3:58PM

@sk8monroe81

All Sony said was that there are 14 million active psn accounts. No mention was ever made about them being on separate systems. Joystiq was the one that used "80% of owners".

"more people are playing gears 2 online than the combined online players for r2, LBP, and socom on any given day."

How do you lookup the number of people playing LBP, R2, and Socom everyday?

Arnon @ Nov 18th 2008 4:06PM

@required

They're not talking about how many are online, they're talking about active accounts.

So I'm pretty sure if each person could only have 1 account.. that number would be different lol.

This is the reason why it's more believable that the 360 has 12-14 million different users.

Vol @ Nov 18th 2008 4:08PM

I am in the 80%, but strange, I never play online with PSN. Playing online with the PS3 is like driving an Accord (PSN) when compared to driving your Benz (Xbox Live)

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 4:09PM

cc123- yeah joystiq exagerates articles.. who knows what was really said at all. ive just heard many stats from sony that usually dont mean anything.

the online play comment is a guess obviously, who has those figures. MS releases their figures for xbox live and who is playing what. i cant find that for sony. probably because the numbers are not good. why else would they not release those figures?

i take the Number of copies that lbp, socom, and r2 have sold and compare that to the number of copies sold for gears2.
I estimate that the same percentage number of ps3 and 360 owners will play their games online also.
so take the total number of copies sold:
gears 2 sales: 3-5 million
lbp,r2,socom combined: 1-3 million at the most.

so more people are playing gears 2 online, than those 3 games IMO on any given day from that formula.

cc123 @ Nov 18th 2008 4:27PM

@sk8monroe81

"who knows what was really said at all."

You can click on the "source" link and see what was actually said. In no place was "80%" used.

As far as your statement regarding online plays...ugh.

You don't know how much R2 has sold.
You don't know how much LBP has sold.
You don't know how much Socom has sold.
You don't know how much Gears 2 has sold.

I don't think MS releases the number gold accounts so you don't know what percentage of 360 users play online. You don't know how many of those 14 million psn accounts are actually being used by separate people, a lot less I'm sure.

Point being, you stated something as fact when you have no idea whether it's true or not.

Lionbacker @ Nov 18th 2008 4:39PM

You know, sk8, from your recent posts, I'm starting to think you're a fanboy. Maybe it's because I haven't noticed you before the last couple weeks, but I'm gonna go ahead and stop caring about anything you say.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 4:53PM

lion- yeah im a gaming fanboy who owns over 10 ps3 titles, and over 25 360 games.

cc123- im going off of sales figures posted on joystiq last week and other websites.

show 1 source where LBP, r2, or socom has sold more than 1 million copies.
there are many sources that show gears selling more than 3 million copies.

u can make educated guesses just by computing average stats & figures.

where did i say that was a fact?
sorry i didnt add IMO, i forget to add that from time to time. but its probably true.

only a sony fanboy would think that LBP, socom, and R2 have sold many copies yet.

aristokrat @ Nov 18th 2008 5:11PM

Sales figures do not equal online play. After having purcahsed 3 of the 4 stated games (Gears 2, LBP, and R2), Gears is the only one I haven't played online. LBP makes it hard not to go online once you've aced all the levels, R2's coop is online only, yet Gears 2 I've only played offline coop for campaign and horde. Using your logic, I could extrapolate that to mean no one has taken Gears online. It's bad reasoning.

cc123 @ Nov 18th 2008 5:16PM

@sk8

"show 1 source where LBP, r2, or socom has sold more than 1 million copies."

I never said they did and I'm not the one pulling stuff out of my ass. I have no idea how much these games have sold WW at this moment in time.

"there are many sources that show gears selling more than 3 million copies."

I remember reading articles about how gears had topped 2 million already. I have no doubts that it will go well over 3 million, but could you please point me to one of these articles that already confirmed it?

"u can make educated guesses just by computing average stats & figures."

What stats? What figures? You pulled almost every relevant number out of your ass.

"where did i say that was a fact?"

In your second comment in this thread. It's a bit hard to read now since it got whited out though.

"only a sony fanboy would think that LBP, socom, and R2 have sold many copies yet."

And only an anti-sony twat would assume they haven't based on data pulled from the deepest regions of his anus.

Sackolantern PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Nov 18th 2008 6:02PM

This is why cc123 is and always will be my favorite commenter on Joystiq. He is a ninja that only comes out of the shadows to assassinate bogus arguments. Has to be one of the most practical and fair minded people on this site. Good show!

@sk8

Claiming that you own 10 PS3 games doesn't prove anything. Your actions and words would beg to differ that you are a gaming fanboy. Truth be told you are really more of A PS3 troll than a 360 fanboy.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 7:51PM

oh the ps3 fanboys are on the down voting today... lol.. last week it was you johnny getting down voted. this site is funny. back and forth.

cc123- vg chartz says
lbp- .76 mil sold
r2- .31 mil sold
socom- .26 mil sold

gears 2- 2.14 mil sold (almost double the sales of the 3 games combined)

you fanboys are happier about these sales than sony is and you really dont think these low sales are a big deal.

johnny im not here to prove anything to you.. lol.
i have 10 ps3 games and MGS4 and resistance are my favorites, the rest i am not that into.
when god of war 3 comes out i will buy that game, ff13 versus, and who knows what else.
i enjoy 360 games more.
damn johnny that sounded like ass kissing to your lover to me... haha.
cc123 has made a few off comments on this site that were wrong before.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 7:55PM

i was more showing how poor the big 3 ps3 games of 2008 have done thus far according to industry sales charts at vg charts and NPD group and joystiq.com.
that is all we can go off now, and those sales figures are never that off. they usually get things right in the end.
they have been right about their 2007 game sales estimates.

u fanboys will really spin an article or statement any which way to make sony's image look better.
u fanboys are happier with sonys performance thus far than sony corporation themselves.
u realize that complaining about issues is the only way to make sony listen and change things that are wrong.
you fanboys keep saying everything is fine, well then sony isnt going to change much.
enjoy.

cc123 @ Nov 18th 2008 8:37PM

@sk8

All the numbers, stats, and "educated guesses" you've been yapping about and in the end the best you could come up with was vgchartz data. You made the claim that Gears 2 was at 3-5 million and not even vgchartz's bs numbers came remotely close to backing that up.

Vgchartz has LBP 1st week America at 144k, NPD October has it at 215k (which is first week). Their numbers should not be taken seriously.

You then try to change directions with this: "i was more showing how poor the big 3 ps3 games of 2008 have done". Shouldn't we wait till R2 and Socom launch in Europe before declaring poor sales? How about taking into account downloaded Socom sales? Yeah I guess not.

All that typing and the only thing you managed to do was prove how full of shit you are.

Sackolantern PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Nov 18th 2008 10:13PM

sk8

The honest and simple truth is you are a troll. Period. Look how bad you are trolling this thread which was simply about the number of PSN users. Usually when people get down voted on Joystiq it's because they deserve it.

You said that cc123 said some stuff in the past that was incorrect. Care to back that up or are you just making more shit up like you always do?

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 11:34PM

johnny- we do the same thing. come onto forums and give opinions and comments. if im a troll you are not better and the same thing. you seem to come and leave a reply comment on almost everybody's negative post against sony on joystiq.com
who are you some sony patrol or something?
the fact is the number of ps3 users is exagerated and doesnt account for the multiple number of users per ps3 console. period. thats where this started.

cc- believe what you want about sony ps3 game sales.
its okay. sony knows the truth they are the only ones really, and they arent happy and losing money everyday.
socom downloads? lol.
a few hundred thousand by end of november at the most.
r2 and socom in europe?
yeah thats going to be the turn around... haha
keep dreaming.
when r2 and socom europe sales happen, guess what gears 2 will have sold a lot more copies.

why do you and johnny feel the need to defend the ps3 so much?

its really funny. its okay that you 2 enjoy the sony ps3 games.
just the rest of the world hasnt caught onto, or really doesnt want to catch on yet. sorry.
sales data doesnt lie.
past sales data doesnt lie either.
sony software doesnt sell.
no ps3 game has sold more than 4 million copies.
keep believing what you want and i will do the same.
its ok.
your no answer defense means nothing.
you can only say that there are no official numbers to go off yet.
well then how can you say my opinion is full of shit or wrong?
you do not know more than me on this subject.
you seem to only wait for official sony figures to make your own decisions and comments on the subject.

having that mentality you would think you would just keep your mouth shut about other peoples opinions, however that just proves your fanboyism and loyalty to sony ps3.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 11:45PM

cc- and how would r2 and socom future europe sales have anything to do with the number of online players on psn today?

its more sounds like your full of shit.

really coming up with anything you can there... lol.

crawl back into your cavern and come back when you have some figures to use for a defense, you really just sound dumb defending sony with nothing.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 18th 2008 11:51PM

cc- & lastly
before official sales data are released any game that sells more than 1 million copies is always talked about and there is press.
when gears 2 sold 1 million on day 1, there were articles, when gears 2 topped 2 million, there were more articles.

there has not been 1 article stating that Lbp, socom, or r2 have topped 1 million, and who knows if any of them has really passed half a million copies.

so common sense and some imagination would show that those 3 games combined have probably sold HALF the number of copies of gears 2.

prove it wrong..

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 19th 2008 12:00AM

cc and johnny-
do you 2 even go onto the official ps3 forums at all?
or just troll the joystiq forums....

it would be funny if I posted more times on sony.com forums than you 2.

wow i just saw the xplay review of socom and they gave it 2 stars out of 5.
johnny no issues at all are there?
or are you playing cod5 online more now?

Markez @ Nov 19th 2008 12:56AM

Whoa sk8, finishing off with 3 consecutive posts all on an ongoing response. Whoa fail. Balls fail.

You've made this thread go from suck to blow.

Sackolantern PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Nov 19th 2008 2:55AM

sk8

What is the point you are trying to make? Your not even making sense at this point. You keep flip-flopping your argument and continue to make assumptions.

Do you know what trolling actually is? Because what you are doing on this thread and always do is the exact definition of trolling a forum.

I am nothing like you.

Trolling Defined:

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.[2]

You don't know what a forum is. (confirmed)
You don't know what a troll is. (confirmed)
You don't really even know what your talking about. (confirmed)

"if im a troll you are not better and the same thing. you seem to come and leave a reply comment on almost everybody's negative post against sony on joystiq.com
who are you some sony patrol or something?"

Replying to a negative comment makes me a troll? Again, you make no sense at all. Trolling would be going into a thread about the amount of PSN users and talking about how bad recent PS3 games have sold compared to a 360 game.

"the fact is the number of ps3 users is exagerated and doesnt account for the multiple number of users per ps3 console. period. thats where this started."

Again, this is not a fact It's an assumption. You are assuming that every single PSN account that has been created is being tabulated. That's your opinion sk8 and not a fact at all. Facts are things that are verifiable and are not based on deductions or assumptions. They are based in reality. Unless you can prove that what you are saying is true it's just an opinion. I want to know why you would even say such a thing. Is it because you don't want to accept that there is a better ratio of active PSN accounts to consoles than the 360 has? What's the purpose of being so steadfast in that opinion to the point of making baseless accusations?

"why do you and johnny feel the need to defend the ps3 so much?"

I'm going to be a little socratic and ask you why you feel the need to always bash the PS3 so much? If you are spreading FUD why wouldn't I set the record straight. You like to take my positions and twist them around. I think you either have bad comprehension skills or you just don't read the entire post's that I make. 95% of the time you misrepresent my position.

"you can only say that there are no official numbers to go off yet. well then how can you say my opinion is full of shit or wrong?"

You just answered your own question. Your trying to present your opinion as fact. How then can you question someone for saying you are wrong when you are making the exact same assumption that you are right. Understand?

"having that mentality you would think you would just keep your mouth shut about other peoples opinions, however that just proves your fanboyism and loyalty to sony ps3."

Again your comment makes no sense at all. If what you say is true then it says the same of yourself. It shows you obvious contempt and bias against the PS3. Sounds to me like you want it both ways.

"so common sense and some imagination would show that those 3 games combined have probably sold HALF the number of copies of gears 2."

Now your trying to spin the argument once again. Changing the rules as you go along. Sometimes it's best to have some humility and admit that what you said was not accurate. The bigger problem is the intent of the comparison in the first place. Your trying to equate sales & the rate of sales as a metric for quality - which is flawed logic in it of its self.

"it would be funny if I posted more times on sony.com forums than you 2."

It would actually be sad because any comment you made there would just be more trolling.

"wow i just saw the xplay review of socom and they gave it 2 stars out of 5. johnny no issues at all are there? or are you playing cod5 online more now?"

So now you bring this up simply to troll again to get a reaction and be mean spirited. I will say what I said from the very beginning that obviously went over your head. I haven't had any issues with the game since I purchased it. None of the problems that persisted with the Beta. I never said there were no issues with the game - I said that from my experience the issues were related to the Beta. Obviously the reason you bring this up is to try and imply that I said the game was perfect and without technical issues which is false. It's not hard to understand but somehow you still seem to miss the point. There are allot of games I have enjoyed that didn't have critical acclaim (haze, lair, wario shake it, army of two etc). I judge my opinion off of experience instead of what other people wrote in a review. As far as Socom sales go - we don't know how many copies have been purchased over the PSN where the game is available as well as in stores.

I guess I need to repeat myself again. I don't like playing Call Of Duty games online because they aren't my preferred multiplayer experiences. I got World At War for the campaign mode and it has been extremely average compared to Modern Warfare. The best thing about it is the audio and voice acting. For me playing Socom online is better than COD WAW.

You want to talk about these issues Socom has had but what about the issues that have plagued Gears 2 since it's release. Broken matchmaking system, lag & random disconnects to name the more prevalent issues. So, if you were to come on here and say you didn't have any of those issues but I then pointed to a thread that Epic recognized them as real does that imply that you were lying or saying there really weren't issues? No. It just means that you didn't have any of the problems.

That should pretty much cover all the misinformation and regurgitated vile you have been spewing in this reply chain. Do yourself a favor and know what words mean before you use them, stop the constant trolling and have the intellectual capacity & humility to admit when you made a mistake.

sk8monroe81 @ Nov 19th 2008 5:08AM

johnieboie-
1) talking about the 360 on sony.com forums is not allowed, so when i goto sony.com it is usually going to be sony product related.
2) i never bashed the ps2 in the past.
3) i have the right to bash the ps3
4)joystiq.com is a gaming forum, not a ps3 or sony website.
5) keep thinking your not a forum troll too if you want to call me one. when you go onto 360 related discussions and reply to people's comments and give your 2 cents about the ps3 what do you call that in your terms?
6) why do you care that i bash the ps3? or anybody for that matter? you are always defending the ps3 on joystiq.com or at least what cc would call anti-360.
7) why mine and others opinions about the ps3 bother you to the point that you need to defend the ps3 to the levels and lengths that you do (length meaning time spent and length of your replies)
8) when somebody gives their opinion about a corporation or product, that is an opinion against a non-real thing, just a product.
not everybody is going to agree with you.
9) i even explained how i based my comments and you still felt the need to keep going... hmm...
i hope you defend your family to the lengths that you defend the ps3. geez take it easy.
i gave my opinion about sales and you could have said you dont agree and gave your own opinion. however it doesnt seem like you have one on the subject. all you can do is hate on a person, when that person is only commenting on a product.
pretty weak.
johnny in the past when i felt that i made a mistake on the forum i was honest and even apologized to you and someone else, i am pretty down to earth with my comments and explaining the from my opinion.
but really whats the deal with hating so much on comments about products (ps3), when an opinion is given why cant you just give an answer?
if you actually had an answer i would take that into account.
but when you troll me and my opinion (i even explained how this was my opinion when asked) that turns it more personal and off topic.

Sackolantern PSN ID: johnnynumber5 @ Nov 19th 2008 11:56AM

Sk8

You still don't get it and you probably never will. The majority of the things you say don't make any sense, are not relevant to the discussion and have no merit what so ever. You need to come back down to Earth and get off your high horse because it's very unbecoming of an adult to act like you do.

I already took the time to reply to and dispel all the FUD and bullshit you posted in this thread. I'm not going to directly reply to all that vile you just posted (you can't be serious) because it will just go above your head again. Trying to have an adult & rational conversation with you is obviously not possible. It accomplishes as much as banging your head against a brick wall.

You go from saying that the PSN figure is a lye, to making up shit about game sales to personal attacks against me. You need to grow up and act like an adult.

Wiinterfang @ Nov 18th 2008 3:25PM

Eeerr...good for them I guess.

Dirty @ Nov 18th 2008 4:19PM

Hooray People Like your Free Service.

Wiinterfang @ Nov 18th 2008 5:40PM

You wish, my services all everything but free pal.

Markez @ Nov 19th 2008 12:58AM

Well then, that doesn't explain the free seal on walrus action you gave him last night does it? Or how the footage I took got up on youtube so fast? Yeah that's right, no one suspects anyone wearing an oversized novelty seagull costume.

*flees

born2kill @ Nov 18th 2008 3:26PM

Does it really matter? Seriously. If PS3 players prefer single player, thats their business and not a knock on PSN. I dont see why gametrailers.com and all these other aholes are making a deal out of nothing.

Dopple Boppler @ Nov 18th 2008 4:10PM

As much as I love Gametrailers for their video content, their community has got to be the worst gaming community on the internet. And I mean lower average IQs than GameFAQs users kind of bad.

Joel Rose @ Nov 18th 2008 3:28PM

I have a PSN account and I've only visited the store a few times to download demos since getting a PS3 2 months ago. I'm sure that qualifies me as an 'active' user in Sony's eyes.

joeybeast @ Nov 18th 2008 3:29PM

Does it count PSP accounts?

Alien Lord @ Nov 18th 2008 3:29PM

That would explain why a co-worker of mine always has stories of racists on PSN, more of the user base on there means a higher percent of racists.

rudemir @ Nov 18th 2008 3:48PM

how is the percantage bigger? the number grows with more people the percentage stays the same.

Jared MacKenzie @ Nov 18th 2008 3:29PM

I'm fairly active on my PSN account since it's free and I always have access to it.

AlDim @ Nov 18th 2008 3:29PM

"there are 14 million active PSN accounts, with roughly 17M PS3 consoles sold to date worldwide. That's about 80% of PS3 owners having PSN accounts."

No, you are wrong. That number has nothing to do with the percentage of OWNERS, it merely lists the number of ACCOUNTS.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Nov 19th 2008 1:34AM

exactly. Joystiq threw that 80% in there and it is very misleading. i personally have 2 active accounts myself on my PS3 (one US, one EU). plus it really isnt that big of a deal since the accounts are free anyways. if you have a broadband internet connection and own a PS3, chances are your going to have a PSN account.

and not that the average tech savvy Joystiq user is an indication of the general public, but it seems like most everyone on this site with a PS3 has more than one account. and either way, the numbers really arent relevant to anything anyways. im a PS3 supporter and all, but this is much ado about nothing.