Sony: Home repeat visitors total 25-30% of PSN users Seven million have downloaded Home and active users are on the increase, says Euro director of the service

Kath Brice Wednesday 15th July 2009 Share this article Share

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Sony's Peter Edward has revealed seven million people have now signed up for PlayStation Home.

Edward, who is platform director for the service, was speaking at the Develop conference in Brighton. He said the figure includes three million people in Europe alone.

However, the estimated figure for those returning to the online space more than once stands at around 25-30 per cent of the 20 million PSN account holders, according to Edward, although he pointed out the stats "aren't definitive" and are constantly changing.

While the space saw massive interest when it first launched, numbers subsequently tailed off due to lack of content, says Edward, but are building as that content now grows. While the Sony director couldn't confirm how many users are online at any one time, he said it's "many thousands".

Since Home launched seven months ago, European users have downloaded six million pieces of merchandise. Yes, said Edward, some of those were free, but make no mistake: "This is a commercial business, it is up and running and it is making money."

According to information previously released by Sony, Home made over one million dollars from micro-transactions in its first month. While more current figures weren't being divulged by the company today, it says it will look to make the information available in the future.

Edward went onto confirm that "only" 80 per cent of Home users are 18 to 35 year-old males. That might sound like a lot, he said, but think about the typical age and gender of the average console gamer. "Home is slowly broadening the appeal of the console market out to a widening demographic," he added.

The average time a European user spends on Home in a single session is 56 minutes. "In terms of exposure and people's attention, that is a huge amount of time," said Edward.

It hasn't been easy, of course - "Obviously there have been a lot of trials and tribulations along the way," the exec conceded. However, "Now, we're starting to see a huge amount of content coming into the platform... Content is arriving which we didn't even know was being developed."

Update: GamesIndustry.biz has clarified that the 25 - 30 per cent figure cited by Edward refers to the number of PSN account holders who have visited Home more than once.